Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday made a case for greater use of plastic currency even as he stressed that development of new facilities at Hoshangabad and Mysore would help in reducing reliance on imports for printing of currency notes.
“The developed world has moved substantially to plastic currency and payment gateways. I think there is need for India and our determination is there to gradually take steps to move in that direction,” he said.
Jaitley was speaking at a conference on ‘Make in India – Indigenisation of Currency’ here. The minister said that the country needed to get rid of “obsolete methodologies” and catch up with the technologies of future to promote industrialisation and create jobs.
“It’s about time that we start at least printing our own symbolism. It also represents a thought process where there is a desire to bring back Indian manufacturing at a particular level,” he said.
Jaitley last week inaugurated the New Bank Note Paper Line with an annual capacity of 6,000 tonnes at the Security Paper Mill (SPM) at Hosanghabad. The minister also made a case for development of industrial corridors saying that it would help in generating jobs in the rural areas.