Counterfeit notes up, Opposition attacks government

New Delhi, May 29

The Opposition has trained its guns on the government after a RBI report revealed that within four years, two of demonetisation’s aims — wiping out counterfeit currency and reducing the number of currency notes — were missed by a wide margin.

Opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi, Derek O’Brien and Priyanka Chaturvedi hit out at the government as the latest RBI annual report for 2020-21 said the Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) of the newly designed post-demonetisation Rs 500 notes has increased by 121 per cent and that of Rs 2,000 notes by 21.9 per cent in comparison with the previous year.

“The only unfortunate success of demonetisation was the torpedoing of India’s economy,” Rahul said in a tweet.

Over 12,728 fake Rs 200 notes were also detected. The biggest rise was in the number of Rs 500 denomination notes in circulation which rose by 687 crore to 4,554.68 crore at the end of March 2021 as against 3,867.90 crore in the year-ago period.