Money, money, money: It’s fake

During the recent conference of the director generals of police organised by the Intelligence Bureau, one of the things that were discussed with great concern was the spread of fake currency in the country. The conference was told that security agencies had seized Rs 100 million worth of fake Indian currency and this was the proverbial “tip of the iceberg”. This fake currency was said to be coming in containers and over land and sea routes. What has flummoxed Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials is the quality of notes. “It seems they have been printed in the same mint from where Indian currency has been printed,” sources said. This should not surprise those who had resisted shifting currency printing operations from the time-tested Swiss Giori machines to Japanese Komori machines. The shift happened during the tenure of PV Narasimha Rao as prime minister. This move was resisted by many. A public interest litigation was filed where it was demanded that Indian currency should not be shifted to Komori as this move would increase the spread of counterfeit currency. The petition was dismissed by the court. However, in 2002, the government signed up with Giori again to meet part of India's currency needs. Highly placed home ministry sources claim that 20 per cent of fake currency is padded in most land-related transactions that take place in black.

In an overheated economy, where the currency transactions are feverish, counterfeit currency is spreading fast. Although the Union home ministry has been accusing Pakistan of counterfeiting Indian currency to subvert India's financial system, home ministry sources claim the problem is more complex. The fake notes that are circulating in the market are on the same paper and have security features that only government security presses can provide. Does it have the making of another Telgi kind of scam where fake stamp paper was being printed in government presses?