Fake currency business not a cottage industry, says Chidambaram

Home Minister P Chidambaram said fake currency business was "not a cottage industry" and pointed out that "an organised effort in Pakistan and Pakistan -occupied Kashmir" was behind it.

Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said fake currency business was "not a cottage industry" and pointed out that "an organised effort in Pakistan and Pakistan -occupied Kashmir" was behind it.

HT Image

"These notes are smuggled from across the border. We have had some success in tracking the routes and will continue to counter it. But behind this racket is an organised effort in Pakistan and PoK. Its not a cottage industry," Chidambaram told reporters in Srinagar.

Fake currency is a problem but not a big threat that it will destabilise our economy, he said and added that according to an RBI study, there is one fake note in every one lakh currency notes.

CBI, the nodal agency for checking fake notes in the country, is also creating a national data bank of fake currencies, an official said. It will help trace the origin of the fake notes and the areas in which it has been circulated.

The government is also indigenising the production of a special paper to print currency notes in the denomination of Rs 500 notes, the most frequently counterfeited currency in the country.