You may be carrying plastic money in your wallet till now in the form of credit and debit cards but soon you will also have a Rs 10 plastic note by your side.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is mulling over the introduction of plastic currency to resolve the issue of wear and tear of paper notes. Plastic notes will increase the life of a note.
RBI is planning a pilot project of Rs 10 notes and will print such notes worth Rs 100 crore.
It has completed the process of issuing tenders for this purpose.
In an exclusive chat with Zee Business, RBI deputy governor, K C Chakrabarthy (pictured)said, “We are starting on trial with one billion notes. We have just completed the tender process, if we see plastic notes can run in our country uniformly we will then get the policy for implementation of plastic notes.”
Speaking on the challenges of launching plastic currency, Chakrabarthy said, “We don’t know, in a huge country like ours, where we have different climatic condition, plastic currency will work or not? Will it be able to survive the temperature or not?”
Cities like Shimla, Bhubaneswar, Mysore, Kochi, and Jaipur are shortlisted for floating these plastic currencies due to varied climatic conditions.
Currently plastic currency is being used in 22 countries.
The concept was innovated by Reserve Bank of Australia and in December, Bank of England announced it would begin producing £5 polymer notes with a picture of Winston Churchill in 2016 and £10 polymer banknotes with a picture of Jane Austen a year later.
Experts say that benefits of using plastic notes are many.
First and foremost that it’s very difficult to copy. Also detection of such notes is very easy.
The durability of plastic notes is 4 times more than that of paper notes. Average durability of paper notes is of one year.
Another benefit of such notes is that they are eco-friendly and can be recycled for re-issue.
The only disadvantage seems to the cost of printing, which is twice that of paper notes.
Currently 11 lakh crore notes are circulating in the market.
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