Written by: vijaita-singh
2 min readNew DelhiJan 22, 2015 04:16 AM IST
First published on: Jan 22, 2015 at 04:16 AM IST
The Home Ministry has barred a German company, Louisenthal, from selling bank note paper to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after it discovered that the firm was also selling raw notes to Pakistan, according to a senior official.
“We are only keeping our interests in mind,” the official told The Indian Express. “We have proof that high-quality fake Indian currency notes are being produced in Pakistan and pushed into India through Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The availability of a common supplier could be one of the reasons behind such high-quality fake notes.”
Representatives of Louisenthal refused to comment when contacted by The Indian Express.
India currently imports all its raw paper for bank notes from Germany and the UK, because a facility commissioned to produce them in Mysore is not yet operational. In 2011, UK-based De La Rue had come under the scanner after the firm admitted that it had supplied paper that “failed to meet certain quality specifications”.
India had also sought help from the US, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit last September, in tracking countries where bank note paper used to print fake Indian currency is manufactured.
At least five cases were reported last year of Pakistani nationals being arrested in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and UAE with consignments of fake Indian currency notes totalling Rs 3.2 crore.
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