Government informed Parliament that a decision has been taken to print plastic currency notes and procurement of material has started.
“It has been decided to print banknotes based on plastic or polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated,” Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha to a query whether RBI proposes to print plastic currency notes in place of paper ones.
The Reserve Bank for long has been planning to launch plastic currency note after field trials.
In February 2014, the government had informed Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs. 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The selected cities were Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.
