RBI to issue new notes of ₹10 denomination
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will shortly issue newly designed banknotes of ₹10 denomination under the Mahatma Gandhi series.
The central bank has already printed around 1 billion notes of the new currency, according to three people familiar with the matter. With chocolate brown colour as the base, the new note will bear the picture of the Konark Sun Temple.
The design received the go-ahead from the government last week, said the two of the people cited earlier. The change in design in the old ₹10 note was last made in 2005. In August last year, the RBI had introduced the new ₹200 and ₹50 notes under the Mahatma Gandhi series.
An RBI spokesperson declined to comment.
The move to reintroduce lower denomination notes in a new design comes after the government’s move to rework the currency mix in order to combat counterfeiting and promote a less-cash economy.
On November 8, 2016, the government announced the withdrawal of ₹1,000 and ₹500 currency notes, amounting to around 86% of the currency in circulation of ₹17.9 lakh crore. Since then, the RBI has replaced these with the new ₹2,000 notes and the redesigned ₹500 bank notes.
The central bank has printed 16.96 billion pieces of ₹500 notes and 3.6 billion pieces of ₹2,000 notes as on December 8, according to information given by the Ministry of Finance in the Lok Sabha. The total value of such notes translates into ₹15.79 lakh crore .
Separately, the regulator had also reissued around 12 billion soiled banknotes of ₹10, ₹20 and ₹50 denomination after the demonetisation resulted in a currency crunch. According to RBI, a soiled note is a currency note which has become dirty due to normal wear and tear.
“The idea is to increase supply of lower denomination to encourage day to day transactions and for larger transactions, people should move to digital mode of payment. Printing of lower denomination notes in new design will ensure soiled notes will be taken out from the system,” said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic advisor at State Bank of India.
MUMBAI: