Polymer notes not now: RBI
 

Business Line

Mumbai

08.10.02

THE Reserve Bank of India has said that there is no immediate plan to introduce polymer or plastic currency notes to replace the existing paper notes.

In a press release, the apex bank said that it has been receiving several queries about the possibility of introducing alternative currency notes in place of paper notes, especially in the denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 500, Rs 100 and Rs 50.

A spokesperson for the RBI said, the clarification was to dispel rumours that were doing the rounds in the markets about the introduction of polymer notes.

As a matter of fact, a north-based polymer manufacturing company is understood to have conducted an experiment with polymer notes in India around one and a half years back, which was unsuccessful.

One of the reasons that was cited at the time for the failure of the experiment, was that the hot and humid weather conditions in most parts of the country were not conducive for polymer notes.