Is India doing enough to detect fake notes, cited by the Prime Minister as a significant reason for withdrawing 86% of India’s currency, a process popularly known as “demonetisation”?
In 2015-16, only 16 of every 250 fakes notes in India were detected, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of government data.
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 money in circulation.
Of the 90.26 billion Indian currency notes in circulation in 2015-16, no more than 0.63 million–that is 0.0007%, or seven-millionths of 1%, seven in every million–were detected as fake, according to RBI data. 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.
In 2015, 0.88 million fake notes worth Rs 43.8 crore were seized, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau tabled in the Lok Sabha (parliament’s lower house) on November 18, 2016.
Rs 27.8 crore was seized until September 30, 2016, the data further reveal.
