The number of fake notes in the banking system jumped by 20.4 per cent to 7,62,072 during 2016-17 compared to the previous financial year , the Reserve Bank of India said on Wednesday.
During 2015-16, 6.32 lakh fake currency notes were detected, the central bank said in its annual report for 2016-17. Except the Rs 100 category, the number of fake notes increased across denominations, notably in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, during the previous financial year.
In the report, the RBI said that coincident with the announcement of the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016, it launched a nation-wide exercise to estimate the density of fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) detected during the counting and verification of notes.
The result showed the rate of FICN detected per million pieces of notes processed at the CC (currency chest) level at 7.1 pieces for Rs 500 denomination and 19.1 pieces for Rs 1,000 denomination, which were higher than the rate of detection.
The value of banknotes in circulation declined by 20.2 per cent to Rs 13,102 billion at end of March 2017 compared to the previous year, according to the RBI report. The volume of banknotes, however, increased by 11.1 per cent, mainly due to higher infusion of banknotes of lower denomination in circulation following demonetisation.
In value terms, the share of Rs 500 and above banknotes, which had together accounted for 86.4 per cent of the total value of banknotes in circulation at end-March 2016, stood at 73.4 per cent at end-March 2017.
The share of newly introduced cent at end-March 2017. The new Rs 2000 notes account for as much as 50.2 per cent of the total currency in circulation as on March 2017.