Currency Printing Costs Jump 25%, ₹500 Notes Dominate Circulation

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reported that the cost of printing currency notes went up by almost 25 per cent in the financial year 2024-25. The total expense for printing currency was Rs 6,372.8 crore, compared to Rs 5,101.4 crore the previous year. This increase mainly happened because more banknotes were printed during the year.

According to RBI's annual report, both the value and the number of banknotes in circulation went up. The value increased by 6 per cent, and the volume grew by 5.6 per cent in 2024-25.

Rs 500 notes made up the largest share of all banknotes. In terms of volume, Rs 500 notes accounted for 40.9 per cent of total notes, followed by Rs 10 notes at 16.4 per cent. In value terms, Rs 500 notes made up 86 per cent of the total, though this was slightly lower than the previous year.

Smaller notes like Rs 10, Rs 20, and Rs 50 together formed 31.7 per cent of all notes in circulation by volume.

The process of removing Rs 2000 notes from circulation, which started in May 2023, continued throughout the year. By March 31, 2025, 98.2 per cent of the Rs 3.56 lakh crore worth of Rs 2000 notes had come back into the banking system.

The number and value of coins also rose in 2024-25. Their value increased by 9.6 per cent, and volume rose by 3.6 per cent. The use of the e-rupee, or digital currency, saw a big jump of 334 per cent in value during the year.

RBI also shared that the number of fake currency notes found went down for Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50, Rs 100, and Rs 2000 notes. But fake notes of Rs 200 and Rs 500 increased by 13.9 per cent and 37.3 per cent, respectively.

The central bank said it is working on better security features for notes and is now using Indian-made materials to print all banknotes, including paper and inks.

RBI plans to continue improving note quality and track cash use trends among people.

(With PTI Inputs)

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