Central Government to launch plastic currency notes

Central Government will soon launch plastic currency notes in place of paper notes to deal with counterfeiting. The bank notes will be made of plastic or polymer substrate for which the process of procurement has been initiated.

It was in February 2014 that the government had informed the Parliament that it plans to introduce 1 billion plastic notes Rs. 10 denomination in a field trial in 5 cities which have selected on basis of climatic and geographic diversity. The five cities which have been selected are Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

The average lifespan of plastic notes is about five years and are relatively difficult to imitate. Furthermore, the currency notes which are made of plastic are cleaner. Australia was first to introduce them to tackle counterfeiting.