Business
Large denomination currency not being withdrawn: RBI Governor
Benaulim (Goa), May 14
RBI Governor Raghuram
Rajan on Thursday ruled out pulling out of large denomination currency
notes from circulation, even as his deputy said that ensuring the right
denomination mix is a constant dilemma.
Top Reserve Bank of India
officials, who were speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Bank's
central board in a coastal resort 50 kms from Panaji, also said that a
fresh tamper proof series of currency notes were being worked on and
could be issued soon.
Earlier, while responding to a media query
as to whether large denomination currency bills, which critics have
claimed could be used to store black money with relative ease, would be
withdrawn from circulation by the RBI, Rajan said: "Your question was
whether the current high denomination notes will be pulled out of
circulation at any point. No. There is no discussion of that at this
point".
Elaborating further, RBI's Deputy Governor R. Gandhi said
that denomination mix was always under "constant review" and the
process was plagued by dilemma.
"It is a constant dilemma between
making it convenient to public to make ordinary payments -- for that
the appropriate denomination should be there -- and parallelly we should
also be worried, about that our currency notes of high denomination are
not used for any unlawful activity. It's a balance which we have to
make," he said.
Gandhi also said that Indian currency notes had never been forged in entirety.
"Whatever
forged notes we have seen or analysed, they have not breached our
security features. There is a constant endeavour from our side to test
whether they have breached our security features or not. They have not,"
he said.
Gandhi also said that forged notes attached in every
seizure by the law enforcement agencies across the country were examined
by RBI officials.
"We have been monitoring once any seizure
takes place. We make a comparison (about) what is the level of forgery
that has taken place. Based on that, we try to improve our own security
features," he said.
"We are already at it by bringing a new
series of notes in consultation with the government. Work is going on.
Hopefully down the line we'll have some improved security feature on our
notes which will not be able to be copied or forged," he said.