Government spends Rs 3.09 per Rs 500 currency note: RTI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) spends Rs 3.09 for each Rs 500 note as cost towards paper, printing and other charges, an RTI query has revealed.

The information was given here on Friday to Mumbai Right To Information activist Anil Galgali on his query on the printing costs incurred by the government for printing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

RBI Deputy General Manager P Wilson said in a written submission that the 'selling price' is Rs 3,090 per thousand pieces of Rs 500 denomination new currency notes, or Rs 3.09 per note for the current year, 2016-2017.

The RBI buys the currency notes from the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Pvt Ltd, its official supplier and printer for currency notes, Galgali said.

The BRBNMPL said it did not have information pertaining to Galgali's RTI query on the Rs 1,000 currency notes — which may be printed in future.

However, the RBI declined to provide information on the orders placed for total quantity of (number of) notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, its value, total contract amount, amount released and pending, as it fell under the ambit of RTI Section 8(1)(a).

Galgali said it was surprising why the government was not revealing the actual data on the number of the new Rs 500 printed and proposed Rs 1,000 currency notes even almost two-and-half months after demonetisation of the earlier Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8.