A new device to detect counterfeit notes is likely to enter the market soon.
The counterfeit note detector, to cost between Rs 2,50,000 and Rs 300,000 and manufactured by the Bangalore-based Albertsons India, checks currency notes through four stages of tests. The device uses infrared and three other tests to detect counterfeit notes.
Albertsons International Pvt Ltd is a manufacturer and marketer of financial equipment like currency counting machines, currency bundling machines, cheques receiving systems and point of sales systems, apart from the latest version of currency detecting machines.
The money detector detects fake notes with magnetic analysis and paper quality analysis and thus makes it a better product.
State Bank of Mysore Assistant General Manager B J Sreepathy told Business Standard on Thursday that the bank's Mysore treasury branch would be receiving two new such tested devices on a 15-day trial. Negotiations are on with the manufacturer in this regard.
Earlier, addressing a consumer awareness programme organised by the Institution of Engineers, Mysore Chapter, as part of the World Consumer Day, he said the present UV lamp device was costly and the production of its bulbs had been stopped, making the machines useless once the lamps blew out as has happened in some bank branches.
Similarly, the note sorting machines were priced as high as Rs 8.5 lakh and not all bank branches, especially the small ones can be provided with such devices. Such technical problems were hindering the banks from ensuring better service to customers, he explained.
"However, with improvements in technology new devices are entering the market. Such devices, expected to enter the market in about six months, it would ensure a stringent check on counterfeits, helping to bring down their circulation. The Reserve Bank of India has also asked banks to step up awareness campaign amongst the public on the ways and methods to detect fake notes," the AGM said.
"In fact, Indian currency notes are the most complicated to counterfeit. The counterfeits are found more commonly in the Rs 100 and Rs 500 denominations. There are state-sponsored rackets too. As under the law even possession of a fake currency note is a criminal offense. So, the public have to carefully check the currency notes they receive," Sreepathy said.
He did not rule out the possibility of counterfeits in ATM machines too and said, "There is tremendous pressure on ATMs for withdrawals. Though they are replenished, currency shortages appear by the end of the day after the bank hours when chances of inserting counterfeits occur."
Even to this day, the best check is done by an experienced clerk. There are head clerks in the bank treasuries who can identify a fake note by touch even in darkness.
"We have such experienced men," he added.
