Counterfeit currency detection instances in the country’s banking channels have seen an all time increase in the last eight years at over 3.53 lakh instances, according to a latest government report.
New Delhi
All banks, either public sector, private and foreign banks in the country, are mandated to report such instances to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under anti-money laundering law provisions.
“The number of counterfeit currency reports (CCRs) increased from a mere 8,580 in 2007-08 to 35,730 in 2008-09 and 3,53,837 in 2014-15,” the report, accessed by PTI, said.
CCR is defined as the usage of a forged or counterfeit currency note or bank note as genuine or where any forgery of a valuable security or a document has taken place during a cash transaction at a bank.
As per the data complied since 2007-08, when the government first mandated the FIU to receive such reports under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) from banks, the year 2009-10 saw reportage of 1,27,781 CCR, in 2010-11 it was 2,51,448, in 2011-12 it was 3,27,382, in 2012-13 they were 3,62,371 and in 2013-14 a total of 3,01,804 such instances were reported.
The data for 2010-11 to 2014-15 shows that the major chunk of these reports, were filed by private Indian banks and a majority of them pertain to usage of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) and not any other valuable security as defined under the CCR terminology.
