By SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL
According to RTI response by Bhartiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL), sale-price of rupees 10, 20 and 50 rupees notes was just rupees .75, .99 and 1.13 respectively only which also included profitability of this subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). But RTI response from Security Printing & Minting Corporation Limited (SPMCIL) has revealed that print-cost of newly issued one-rupee note (colour photo attached) on 06.03.2015 is rupees 1.14.
Issuing one-rupee note after its discontinuance twenty years back has eliminated much-needed scope of reducing sizes of currency notes of other denominations which were last reduced about half-a-century back. Such a regressive step has thus resulted two-way loss in currency-printing including also a high-printing cost of one-rupee note with a short life-span.
Enquiry should be made if retrogressive step of re-issue of costly one-rupee notes was taken so that signatures of top bureaucrat of Union Finance Ministry may appear on these notes for becoming a historical feature in future. Further printing and even issuing of one-rupee notes should be immediately stopped. Then sizes of notes of other denominations from rupees 10 to rupees 1000 will be possible to be reduced for huge saving in currency-printing.
Present print-stock of one-rupee notes can be sold in attractive plastic-packing only at premium-price as souvenir, rather than putting these in actual circulation because limited number of printed one-rupee notes will otherwise also not be coming in actual circulation with every one getting these likely to keep as collectors’ item.
