1500 crore saved

The government is expected to save foreign exchange worth Rs 1,500 crore by commissioning two new bank paper lines in Hoshangabad and Mysore for indigenously printing Indian currency.

1. The New Bank Note Paper Line of 6,000 million tonnes (MT) capacity at Security Paper Mill (SPM), Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh, 
2.  While the Bank Note Paper Line in Mysore with 12,000 MT capacity is expected to be commissioned by the year end. 

"The combined savings of foreign exchange from these two Bank Note projects will be about Rs 1,500 crore in the coming years," a finance ministry said in a statement. The production of the Bank Note paper from these two units will reduce the import considerably, it said. This will also reduce possibility of diversion of the paper supplied by the foreign suppliers to the other destinations for the purpose of generating the fake currency, it said. "Commissioning of this project is part of Make-in-India, Indigenisation of Currency and to become self-reliant in production of the raw materials requirement for the production of the Bank Notes," it said.

At the same time, the Finance Minister will flag off the first consignment of Rs 1,000 Bank Note paper made indigenously for Currency Note Press, Nashik.

Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) has also set up another Joint Venture Company called Bank Note Paper Mill India Pvt at Mysore besides SPM, Hoshangabad. SPMCIL was incorporated in 2006 and has nine units engaged in minting of coins, printing of banknotes, passports, postal stationery, non-judicial stamp papers, and other security documents & security paper.

Note by mohan

The purpose of these plants is to manufacture paper of currency note quality and specification. These plants may create only local jobs. Actual printing of currency still remains the same, except the paper is Indian.

Currently, Pak also sources these papers from the same international vendors from where we buy - and then they print FICN - fake Indian currency note and divert it to Indian to sabotage economy. With our own paper slowly this menace is planned to be brought under control.