250 out of every 10 lakhs notes are fake. Fake Notes with the face value of Rs 70 crore enter the economy every year; only a third is intercepted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited terrorism financed by fake Indian currency as a major reason for invalidating the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that made up 86% of the money in circulation. What are Fake Notes or Forged Notes? What do you do when you get a fake note? How many fake notes are in India? What are features of the genuine currency notes
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Forged Note, Counterfeit note or Fake Note
A suspected forged note, counterfeit note or fake note is any note which does not possess the characteristics of genuine Indian currency notes. You can identify a forged note if you know the features of genuine Indian currency notes. These features are easily identifiable by seeing, touching and tilting the note. Fake Indian Currency Note (FICN) is a term used by officials and media to refer to counterfeit currency notes circulated in the Indian economy.
RBI Circular on Detection and Impounding of Counterfeit Notes
What to do if you get a fake note?
As per Section 39 of the Criminal Procedure Code, if a person identifies a counterfeit note, he is required to give this information to the nearest magistrate or police officer. As it is a fake note under no condition the note is returned to you and no refund is made. So always be wise to check the note before you accept or you will end up losing the money you have.
If you deposit a counterfeit note in Bank?
If you are unaware that you have a fake note and you happen to visit the bank for deposit, after stringent checks once the bank identifies the fake notes, they put a stamp on the forged note stating ‘Counterfeit Banknote Impounded’ details of which are entered in a separate register. You will be given an acknowledgment receipt and will be asked to sign the counterfeit receipt. If you are unwilling to sign the counterfeit receipt, you will still be provided with an acknowledgment receipt. The bank officials are not allowed to tear the note or not disclose the counterfeit. Remember that you will not be given any refund and the bank officials will not return the fake note to you.
- In cases of detection of up to 4 fake notes in a single transaction, a report is sent to the local police authorities by the Bank Nodal Officer along with counterfeited notes as evidence.
- If more than 5 counterfeit notes are detected in a single transaction along with the pre-stated requisites, the bank has to file FIR.
What do you if you get a fake note from ATM?
If you have received a fake note from the ATM, display the note on the camera explicitly. Ensure to have a copy of the ATM receipt as proof. If possible, get in touch with the watchman outside so that he is ready to vouch for the mishap. Next, you can take the note to the bank, where after successful verification that the note was dispensed from the ATM and you did not ore-own it, your note will be exchanged and the fake note will be counterfeited as per the procedure.
Fake notes or counterfeit Notes in India
How many fake notes or counterfeit Notes are there in India?
As many as 250 out of every 10 lakh notes in circulation are fake, according to a study, Estimation of the quantum of FICN in circulation, conducted by the Indian Statistical Institute. Kolkata. Typically, at any point in time, banknotes with a face value of Rs 400 crore are in circulation in the country. The study revealed that fake currency notes with a face value of Rs 70 crore are infused into the system every year, and law enforcement agencies are able to intercept only a third of them — a fact that is acknowledged by the agencies themselves.
In 2015-16, only 16 of every 250 fakes notes in India were detected, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of government data. The detection rates of fake 100- and 500-rupee notes were found to be about the same or 10% higher than the detection rate of 1,000-rupee notes. The study added that fake 1,000-rupee notes constitute about 50% of the total value of fake notes.
Problem of Fake Notes in India
According to RBI data, of the 90.26 billion Indian currency notes in circulation in 2015-16, no more than 0.63 million, that is 0.0007%, were detected as fake. The value of these fake notes in 2015-16 was Rs 29.64 crore, which is 0.0018% of the Rs 16.41 lakh crore currency in circulation. This data does not include notes seized by the police and other enforcement agencies. Ref Just how many fake notes were actually detected in India last year?
RBI Counterfeit Currency Notes detected
In the calendar year 2015, investigative agencies and RBI seized and recovered 6.32 lakh fake currency notes with a face value of Rs 30.43 crore. The image below shows the recovery of fake notes Ref Indian express Explaining India’s huge currency problem where 250 out of every 10 lakh notes are fake
Recoveries of Fake Notes
How do these notes find their way to India, and who profits from them?
According to a report prepared by the IB, R&AW, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and CBI, Pakistan’s military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is behind counterfeit notes in India and has been raking in an annual profit of around Rs 500 crore. The ISI has been making a profit of 30-40% on the face value of each counterfeit Indian note produced in Pakistan. The cost of printing a Rs 1,000 counterfeit note, for instance, is Rs 39 (the RBI spends Rs 29 for printing a Rs 1,000 note), but it is sold at Rs 350-400. The total fake notes that came into India in 2010 from abroad was pegged at Rs 1,600 crore, and going by this estimate, the report put the ISI’s total profit at Rs 500 crore.
What has the government done to tackle the problem of Fake Notes?
The government has formed a special Fake Notes Co-ordination (FCORD) Group in the Home Ministry to share FICN information with security agencies of states and the Centre. It has also constituted a Terror Funding & Fake Currency Cell (TFFC) in the National Investigation Agency to investigate terror funding and fake currency cases.
Under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, effective from February 1, 2013, damage to the monetary stability of India by production, smuggling or circulation of high quality fake Indian paper currency, coin or any other material has been declared an act of terror.
Apart from this, the government in August 2015 signed an MoU with Bangladesh to prevent the counter-smuggling and circulation of fake currency notes. This, after it found that smugglers were increasingly using the India-Bangladesh border to smuggle in FICN. Under the MoU, the two countries will share intelligence on such cases.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi cited terrorism financed by fake Indian currency as one of the major reasons for invalidating the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that made up 86% of the money in circulation. You can read Ban on 500 and 1000 rupee notes fight against corruption, PM speech for more details.
PM Narendra Modi tweet on domentization and fake Notes
What are features of Real Currency Notes?
The Reserve Bank of India has introduced new design banknotes in the denomination of ₹2000 as part of Mahatma Gandhi(New) Series. The new denomination has the motif of the Mangalyaan on the reverse, depicting the country’s first venture into interplanetary space. The base colour of the note is magenta. The note has other designs, geometric patterns aligning with the overall colour scheme, both on the obverse and the reverse. The size of the new note is 66mm x 166mm. While the security features in the current series of banknotes, such as the watermark, security thread, latent image of denomination numeral, denomination numeral in colour shifting ink, number panels, see-through register, electro-type, bleed lines, etc., continue to remain, their relative positions may have changed in the new design notes. Our article New Rs 500 and Rs 2000 notes : Features,Comparison explains the features of new Rs 500 and 2000 notes.
Rollover to view features of the New ₹2000 Notes from RBI website paisaboltahai.rbi.org.in
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- Currency Management: How does Indian Notes and Coins reach People
- How does RBI deal with old notes, banned notes of 500 and 1000
- New Rs 500 and Rs 2000 notes : Features,Comparison
