NEW DELHI: Admitting shortage of coins, Government today said that it has taken up a capacity expansion programme to produce 18,000 million pieces annually.
Replying to supplementaries in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha also said that counterfake currencies are a “threat” to the nation and hence the government “has been taking and will take” all steps to augment the security of the place where currency is printed.
He also said that introduction of new technology including having plastic currency are always under consideration, when asked whether the government could consider coming out with plastic currency to meet the challenge for counterfeiting.
Giving details of the demand-supply gap in coins for the last three years, Sinha said there has been a shortfall by the government vis a vis indent placed by RBI.
In 2013-14, the RBI gave an indent of 12,033 million pieces of coins while the total supply that could be made was 7,677 million pieces with a gap of 4,356 million.
In 2014-15, the India Government Mint could supply 7,907 million pieces of coins as against the RBI indent of 13,840 million pieces. The gap was 5,933 million pieces.
The last financial year 2015-16 recorded a gap of 4,982 million pieces of coins. Even though supply was increased to 9,258 million pieces, it was way behind the RBI’s order of 14,240 million pieces of coins.
Mentioning the steps taken by the government to augment the supply of coins, Sinha said, “Production of coins in the India Government Mint has been increased over the period. It is increased from 7,677 million pieces in 2013-14 to 9,258 million pieces in 2015-16.
“Capacity expansion programme of India Government Mint (which operates four mints in the country for the production of coins), to produce circulate coins up to 18000 million pieces has been taken up.”
The Union Minister said that the government has also decided to promote payment by cards and digital means, which will encourage people to pay through cashless means thus reducing the dependency on hard cash and coins.
Listing the steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India to ensure distribution of coins, he said that banks have been advised to organize coin melas for issue of coins directly to the members of public.
“More remittance of coins are being sent to the Currency Chests in the areas from where shortage is reported. Regional offices have been advised to keep minimum balances in their vaults and in Currency Chests to ensure availability of coins to bank branches/members of public in every state.
“Shopkeepers and other business establishments, toll gate agencies, etc have been attached to the nearest Currency Chest for the requirements of coins, subject to availability. The banks have been encouraged to install Coin Vending Machines for issue of coins by providing them capital subsidy,” Sinha said. (PTI)
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