₹2000 notes make 56 percent of total fake currency, Gujarat being the hub

₹2000 notes introduced after demonetisation, on 8 November 2016 have become the major culprit of counterfeit currency.

While ₹1,000 and ₹500 banknotes were banned overnight, the government introduced new banknotes with denominations of ₹2,000 and ₹500.

It said these banknotes have additional security features which would make them difficult to be copied by counterfeiters, hence check the menace of fake currency.

But three yea₹on, government's own data show that a note with higher value actually helped the rackets operating in counterfeit currency.

Latest reports of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reveal that, ₹2,000 banknotes comprised 56 per cent of all fake currency seized in India after demonetisation.

NCRB's latest annual report titled 'Crime in India' reveals that in 2017 and 2018, law enforcing agencies seized Fake India Currency Note (FICN) worth ₹46.06 crore.

Analysis of the two NCRB reports further reveals that ₹2,000 notes contribute maximum to the value of seized fake currency

In 2017, law enforcing agencies seized fake currency worth ₹28.10 crore, with fake ₹2,000 notes comprising 53.30 per cent of this value.

A year later, share of ₹2,000 notes in seized fake currency increased to 61.01 per cent, clearly suggesting that counterfeite₹were becoming more successful in printing and circulating copies of these notes.

Since the introduction of ₹2,000 notes in November 2016, Gujarat has emerged as the hub for its fake variant.

About 57 per cent of these fake ₹2,000 notes were seized in Gujarat, the prime minister's home state.

By the end of 2018, law enforcing agencies had seized 34,680 fake ₹2,000 notes from Gujarat and their collective worth was ₹6.93 crore.

In the national context, Gujarat had a 26.28 per cent share in all fake ₹2,000 notes seized post demonetisation.

It was followed by West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh where fake ₹2,000 notes worth ₹3.5 crore, ₹2.8 crore and ₹2.6 crore, respectively, were seized.

NCRB's Crime in India report for 2016 reveals that in the remaining 53 days of 2016, law enforcing agencies seized 2,272 fake ₹2,000 notes worth ₹45.44 lakh across India.