Govt mint halts printing on ink shortage, say unions

Non-availability of ink has resulted in a halt in printing of ~200 and ~500 denomination banknotes at the Currency Note Press, an employees’ union leader claimed on Wednesday. “The ink used to print the notes is imported, which is not available now, leading to a halt in printing of these ~200 and ~500 banknotes,” Jagdish Godse, the president of press workers federation, said.

He said this could be one of the reasons why there was a shortage of notes at the national level, stating that the press in Nashik Road area is one of the leading ones engaged in printing all the denominations, except the ~2,000 bills. However, he did not specify when the printing of notes stopped. Usually, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gives an order for printing after which the CNP, a unit of Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India, starts printing, he said, adding the government-run mint is awaiting the central bank’s orders to start printing. The company falls under the finance ministry, which takes care of its daily functioning, and not the RBI, he said. The comments come a day after the government ordered a fivefold increase in printing of ~500 notes to supply up to ~750 billion worth of new notes next month. Automated teller machines in some parts of the country continued to remain dry on Wednesday as the government scrambled to rush currency to meet an “unusual spurt in demand”.