The Ministry of Finance on Monday (November 25) reported a 317% rise in counterfeit ₹500 notes over the last five years.
Data presented in Parliament revealed that fake ₹500 notes increased from 21,865 million pieces (mpcs) in FY19 to 91,110 mpcs in FY23. However, a 15% decline to 85,711 mpcs was observed in FY24.
FY22 saw the steepest annual jump in counterfeit ₹500 notes, doubling from 39,453 mpcs in FY21 to 79,669 mpcs — a spike of 102%. Counterfeit ₹2000 notes also saw a sharp rise of 166% in FY24, increasing from 9,806 mpcs in FY23 to 26,035 mpcs.
Despite these increases, the government reported an overall 30% drop in fake currency across all denominations, from 3,17,384 mpcs in FY19 to 2,22,639 mpcs in FY24.
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In May this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the share of ₹500 denomination currency notes in overall currency has jumped to 86.5% at the end of March 2024, against 77.1% in the year-ago period.
The central bank’s annual report attributed the surge primarily to the withdrawal of the ₹2,000 denomination notes announced in May 2023. The share of this denomination has reduced to 0.2% from 10.8% in the year-ago period.
Volume-wise, the ₹500 denomination was the highest at 5.16 lakh notes while ₹10 denomination came a distant second at 2.49 lakh as of March 31, 2024, as per data shared in an annual report.
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The value and volume of bank notes in circulation increased by 3.9% and 7.8%, respectively, in FY24 as compared with an increase of 7.8% and 4.4%, respectively, during the previous fiscal year, it said.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
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