RBI to introduce 100 crore Rs 10 plastic notes

NEW DELHI: Soiled notes may soon be a thing of past with the Reserve Bank planning to introduce Rs 10 polymer banknotes whose life span would be 4 times the normal currency notes and would be difficult to imitate.

The apex bank has initially decided to introduce 100 crore pieces of Rs 10 polymer notes, for which it has floated a global tender, a senior central bank official told PTI.

Explaining the rationale for introduction of polymer notes, the official said, these notes would have an average life span of 5 years compared to one year for the currency notes.

Besides, the official said, these notes are cleaner than paper notes and it would be difficult to counterfeit the currency.

The polymer notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting of currency.

Besides Australia, other countries which have introduced plastic notes include New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Bermuda, Brunei and Vietnam.

The RBI that has floated tender for polymer note has fixed October 20 as last date for submitting expression of interest.

It is to be noted that the RBI in 2002 had said that there was no proposal to introduce polymer/plastic notes of higher denomination in place of paper notes.

"The RBI has been receiving several queries about the possibility of introducing polymer/plastic currency notes to replace the existing paper notes, especially in the denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 500 Rs 100 and Rs 50," the central bank had said in a release.

However, going by the increasing incidence detection of fake notes, RBI may consider introduction of higher denomination plastic notes.