No more imported 'money'

Did you know that the money we pay and receive is actually made from imported paper? We pay money to make money and that too precious forex.

The Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), which is the apex money making organization, annually spends upto Rs.1200 crore for importing the currency paper after which the printing is done by RBI. We import some 15,000 metric tons of currency paper every year, costing an average of Rs.8 lakh per metric tonne. 95% of the paper required for the currency is imported from NATO countries. And we have been importing this paper for the past 45 years!

The good news is that our PM has decided to put an end to this import and start making our own currency paper. Machines for the same are being imported from Germany and phase I will begin from March 2015 at the Hoshangabad printing press. It will be sourcing raw materials from cotton-producing states such as Gujarat. The plant will have a capacity of 6000 mtpa at a cost of Rs.495 crore. It is setting up another plant in Mysore and this will have a capacity of 12,000 mtpa at a cost of Rs.1490 crore. This plant is expected to go online by June’15 in two phases.

This is indeed a great move and probably the first step towards the 'Make In India' movement for Indians, reducing at least some part of import dependency. Again shocking that th previous Govt never thought about indigenising this process, especially when it was grappling with reducing imports. Basically, it let things go on as they were, irrespective of looking at how things could be changed. Glad that some good change is at least taking place.