New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reported a massive rise in the number of counterfeit Rs 500 denomination notes.
In its annual report, RBI has mentioned that counterfeit Rs 500 denomination notes detected in the banking system has surged by 37.3 per cent in the year 2024-25.
As many as 1.18 lakh fake Rs 500 notes (new design), worth Rs 5.88 crore, were detected in the banking system during the last financial year, as against 85,711 counterfeit notes valued at Rs 4.28 crore found in 2023-24.
The annual report has also flagged a 13.9 per cent rise in the number of counterfeit Rs 200 notes in 2024-25. The total number of counterfeit Rs 200 notes detected in 2024-25 was valued at Rs 65.32 lakh, compared to Rs 57.34 lakh the previous year.
During 2024-25, the counterfeit notes detected in the
As for counterfeit notes of denominations of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100, RBI detected 32.3 per cent, 14 per cent, 21.8 per cent and 23 per cent increase, respectively.
As much as 95.3 per cent of the total Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) were detected by banks, while RBI detected the rest, the annual report states.
One option to counter this worrying trend is digital currency.
It has been on RBI’s radar for some time. The central bank is currently exploring Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilots for cross-border payments on both bilateral and multilateral bases.
“The Reserve Bank is exploring commencement of CBDC pilots on cross-border payments both on bilateral and multilateral basis to overcome key challenges related to turnaround time, efficiency and transparency. Bilateral cross-border CBDC pilots with select countries are being ‘actively explored’, and progress has been made in finalisation of roadmap, technical aspects and use cases,” RBI said.
“The value of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or e-rupee in circulation jumped to ₹1,016 crore at the end of March 2025 from ₹234 crore in the year-ago period,” RBI informed.
CBDC was introduced in November 2022 with a wholesale pilot, which was followed with a retail one. It was initially thought of in the face of a challenge to the currency system from virtual currencies such as Bitcoins.
