Banks geared up to curb fake money menace

Banks are fully prepared to check the menace caused by fake currency, a senior official of the Reserve Bank of India said.

Reserve Bank of India regional director J Sadakkadulla on Thursday said that a high-level committee headed by RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat had recommended installing of note sorting machines (NSMs) in all bank branches in a phased manner and has asked the banks to give a road map to the RBI to achieve this task.

He said the number of fake notes in India was just eight pieces per million which is one of the lowest in the world.

"The total circulation of the currency in India is 48 billion pieces and the fake currency merely 0.0008 per cent of that," he added.

"The market price of the note-sorting machine is Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) and will decrease in the near future,' said Sadakkadulla.

He said earlier, it was only the currency chest of the banks which were required to install note sorting machines. "But now each branch of the bank will have to go for note-sorting machines," he asserted.

At present, only about 4,000 currency chests have these machines and about 70,000 bank branches that are present all over the country require them.