New Delhi:
Witnessing a consistent rise over the past few years, fake currencies worth Rs 107.33 crore have been seized in three-and-half years till June 2013, Parliament was informed today.
Fake currencies with face value of Rs 23.66 crore were seized in 2010; Rs 31.46 crore in 2011; Rs 34.57 crore in 2012; and Rs 17.64 crore until June 2013, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
"In terms of available estimates, the volume of fake currency recovered and seized in India is not more than 0.003 per cent.
"To address the multi-dimensional aspects of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) menace, several agencies such as Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs, RBI, Security and intelligence agencies of the centre and states, CBI are working in tandem," he said.
A special FICN coordination (FCORD) group has been formed in the Ministry of Home Affairs to share the intelligence and information amongst different security agencies of the central and state governments to counter the menace of circulation of fake currency, he added.
At the international level, the issue of circulation of FICN has been raised in Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Mr Chidambaram said the Reserve Bank has also initiated several steps and provides information to the public on security features of banknotes.
He said banks have been advised to ensure that notes received over the counters are re-circulated only after ensuring proper authentication through machines.
"The process of reporting and detection of counterfeit notes, by banks, has also been rationalised in order to safeguard the interests of common man, coming across such counterfeit notes unknowingly and bringing in improvement of reporting," Mr Chidambaram said.
He also said a scheme of incentives for banks has been introduced for reporting counterfeit notes detected by them.