The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to launch new bills of Rs 10 shortly. The RBI has already printed around one billion pieces of the new Rs 10 note, according to a Livemint report. The new note is said to be chocolate brown in colour, and will have a picture of the Konark Sun Temple at the back.
Livemint also reported the government approving the design last week. The last change to the Rs 10 note was made in 2005.
New Rs 50 and Rs 200 were introduced by the RBI in August last year.
This move to launch new lower denomination notes comes after the government's efforts to rework the currency in order to move to a less-cash economy.
The government had announced the decision to withdraw Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes on 8 November 2016, which amounted to 86 percent of the currency in circulation.
According to data sourced by Livemint from the finance ministry, the RBI had printed 16.96 billion pieces of new Rs 500 notes, and 3.6 billion Rs 2,000 notes as of 8 December 2017. Adding up to a total value of Rs 15.79 trillion in new 500 and 2,000 rupees notes.
RBI also reissued around 12 billion soiled Rs 10, Rs 20, and Rs 50 notes after demonetisation due to the currency crunch that followed.
RBI data acquired by Livemint shows that currency in circulation as of 22 December was Rs. 16.71 trillion, about 94.4 percent of the currency in circulation in November 2016 before demonetisation.
The government's reason for this is to supposedly check the fake currency which has seen a substantial jump since 2008.
From 1,95,000 pieces in fiscal year 2008, the amount of fake currency had increased to 6,32,000 pieces in FY 2015-16.
“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,” Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser at State Bank of India told Livemint.
(With inputs from Livemint)
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