AGENCIES
NEW DELHI, Oct 21: Government on Tuesday said intelligence agency of a neighbouring country is pumping in fake rupee notes into India.
"There are credible reports that intelligence agency of a neighbouring country continues to pump in fake Indian currency notes (FICN) in all parts of India," Minister of State for Finance
P K Bansal told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
He further said that inputs available with intelligence agencies point to FICN originating from Pakistan with staging posts at Dubai, Sri lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and Nepal.
As per the information provided by the National Crimes Record Bureau, number of notes seized in India in 2005 was 3,61,700, amounting to Rs 6,92,70,876. The number of notes seized in 2006 and 2007 stood at 3,58,007 and 3,34,566 amounting to Rs 8,39,49,269 and Rs 8,85,88,385 respectively, he said.
During the current year up to June 30, 1,84,101 notes worth Rs 6,04,38,340 had been seized, the MoS Finance said.
He said, "a few instances of counterfeit currency being dispensed through ATM have been brought to the notice of RBI."
Disbursement of counterfeit notes, through ATMs, would be treated as an attempt to circulate counterfeit notes by the bank concerned, he added.
The RBI has also advised banks to equip all the currency chests maintaining branches with note-sorting machines to detect the counterfeit notes and may also consider setting up such machines at their branches and for public use at the counter, Bansal said.
He added various steps are taken by the Indian government to curb circulation of FICN in the country. |
