Govt to introduce Rs 1000 notes

NEW DELHI, June 13: The Finance Ministry is contemplating to introduce the "smart card" and Rs 1000 denomination notes which will...

NEW DELHI, June 13: The Finance Ministry is contemplating to introduce the "smart card" and Rs 1000 denomination notes which will partly offset the problem emanating from shortage of currency notes as part of the golden jubilee year celebrations.

Addressing his first press conference, soon after taking over as Minister of State for Finance here on Friday, Satyapal Maharaj, said that "smart card" would be launched as part of the celebrations to commemorate 50th year of independence.

Maharaj said that the smart card would be different from credit cards. These cards, he added, could be used for making payments in place of cash. "It would be somewhat like travelers cheque", the Minister said.

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Elaborating on the modalities, he said, the smart card would be issued by banks on payment of a specified amount. There will be some small commission, but it would not be as high as in case of credit cards.

This, Maharaj said, would also ease the problem of currency shortage which was currently being faced by the country.

The minister further said that he would be inaugurating the mint in Hyderabad in the next month and would take steps for improving production of currency notes and coins. He regretted that the Government was not able to print enough currency notes with the existing set of security presses.

Satyapal Maharaj as Minister of State for Finance will be looking after Department of Expenditure, Company Affairs, National Savings Organisations and Currency and Coinage Division in the Department of Economic Affairs.

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Replying questions on the CRB fraud, Maharaj said that the Finance Minister would step up monitoring of non-banking finance companies to prevent such frauds in future.

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