Bangladesh replaces Pakistan in counterfeiting Indian currency

Bangladesh is emerging as the biggest source of fake currency entering India, replacing the erstwhile contributor Pakistan, the Hindustan Times reported.

Bangladesh is leading in the production and smuggling of fake Indian currency of Rs 2000, which was issued after the Centre demonetised old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 last November, showed official data of Border Security Force (BSF).

The fake notes, seized by the BSF in the first half of 2017, amount to Rs 32 lakh. It is stil lower than that of 2016 — the Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) then consisted of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes.

In 2016, nearly 762,072 pieces of fake notes were detected in the banking system last year, a 20.4 percent jump from previous year, said a report by PTI.  BSF seized Rs 2.6 crore in 2015 and Rs 1.5 crore in 2016 from Guwahati and south Bengal frontiers.

Counterfeiters have started using offset printing machines to produce fake currency notes, a senior BSF official told HT.

The counterfeit notes produced in Pakistan and Bangladesh enter India through 13 border routes in states such as Jammu, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Assam.

While the other frontiers have seen a cutback in the flow of fake currency, the ones in West Bengal and its neighbouring state Assam, have seen escalation since the beginning of this year, the newspaper reported.

A source told Hindustan Times that Bangladesh-based fake-note manufacturing entities were sneaking in paper from Saudi Arabia and Malaysia to imitate the material used in producing the original Rs 2000 Indian currency.

The South Bengal and Guwahati frontiers have seen a surge in the captured amount of fake notes this year. The worth of seized currency was Rs 1 lakh in January this year, Rs 2.96 lakh in February, Rs 4.60 lakh in March, which skyrocketed to Rs 20 lakh in April.

However, rivers flowing high in monsoons and floods in Assam have reduced the inflow of fake currency and it was down to a seized amount of Rs 6.98 lakh in May.