Counterfeit notes of Rs 500 denomination surged 37% YoY in FY25, shows RBI annual report

Fake Notes

Counterfeit currency notes of Rs 500 denomination rose over 37 percent on a yearly basis to 1.18 lakh pieces during financial year 2024-25 in the banking system, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Annual Report 2024-25. It is highest among all the other denominations in 2025.

In the previous financial year, Rs 500 denomination counterfeit stood at 85,711 pieces.

The other denominations where fake currency was found were Rs 100 denomination with 51,069 pieces, Rs 200 denomination with 32,660 pieces, and Rs 2.000 denomination with 3,508 pieces in 2025, the report showed.

Despite this, the overall fake notes detected in FY25 reduced over the last fiscal year. In FY25, overall fake notes stood at 2.18 lakh pieces, as compared to 2.23 lakh pieces in a year ago period.

Of the total, 95.3 percent fake notes having 2.07 pieces were detected at banks, and rest at the RBI.

Last year, in November, according to a parliament paper shared by Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, showed RBI recorded a 300 percent jump in counterfeit Rs 500 notes in the banking system during FY 2018-19 to FY 2023-24.

Counterfeit Rs 500 (Mahatma Gandhi New Series) notes detected in the banking system rose from 21,865 million pieces in 2018-19 to 85,711 million pieces in 2023-24, Chaudhary said in a written reply to a lawmaker’s query in the Lok Sabha on November 25, 2024.

FY22 witnessed the sharpest annual spike in counterfeit Rs 500 notes, doubling from 39,453 million pieces in FY21 to 79,669 million pieces—a 102 percent surge in a single year, the data showed.

Rs 2,000 notes, which were discontinued from printing with effect from September 30, 2023 also saw a 166 percent jump in FY24, from 9,806 million counterfeit pieces in FY23 to 26,035 million pieces.