'To curb fake currency, go Indian'

Source:fe :Agencies: Thursday, Apr 01, 2010 at 1532 hrs IST





New Delhi: The Finance Ministry should encourage local manufacturing of currency paper to check counterfeits and exempt its production from excise duty, a high level committee has said.

In a report submitted to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, the committee has recommended that the Directorate of Currency be set up to oversee research and development to add security features in currency notes.

It has called for a National R&D centre under the proposed Directorate for conducting research in areas like raw material, security features and machinery required for the production of Indian bank notes and other security sensitive items.

The nine-member committee, headed by former bureaucrat Shilabhadra Banerjee, also suggested setting up of a national-level coordinating agency for investigating the menace of fake currency notes.

According to an official statement, the committee has suggested that emphasis be laid on indigenisation of bank note paper production, security inks and coin plating.

The committee has recommended exempting currency paper manufactured in India from excise duty and suggested waiving of customs duty on imported machinery for producing bank note paper and printing.

It has also called for launching a multimedia awareness campaign by RBI to educate and help people distinguish between genuine and fake notes.

The statement said, "The Finance Minister appreciated the work done by the Committee and emphasised the early implementation of the recommendations by the Ministry."

It said the committee was constituted to review the acquisition procedure of the security features for currency notes and suggest a roadmap for progressive indigenisation of various inputs including high end machinery and security features.

Recently, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said in Mysore, "I am keenly awaiting the recommendations of this committee, after which, I plan to develop a roadmap for indigenisation (of currency paper production), in consultation with the RBI."