Government restored normalcy post-note ban in a few weeks: Jaitley

Arun Jaitley

New Delhi, Feb 17- Applauding the security printing presses for their efficiency, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that while people were estimating that it will take a year or seven months for printing adequate number of notes, the situation was normalised in a few weeks.

“People used to guess it will take a year or seven months for remonetisation. But in a few weeks things were normalised,” Jaitley said here at the 11th Foundation Day function of the Security Printing Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL).

“To maintain the supply line of notes, SPMCIL and the Reserve Bank of India printing presses did a commendable job. To work 24-hours for a long duration with efficiency is commendable for SMPCIL,” he added.

Jaitley said that while in other companies 99 per cent efficiency is considered good, SMPCIL has to work with 100 per cent error-free work, because even 1 per cent laxity in currency printing can lead to serious implications.

He said that SPMCIL played an important role in the world’s biggest exercise of demonetisation.

Jaitley also congratulated SPMCIL for becoming debt-free and said that SPMCIL not only mints money but also makes money for the government.

SPMCIL, a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE), was incorporated on January 13, 2006 to manage four government mints, two currency presses, two security presses and one security paper mill. The corporation is wholly owned by the central government.

The corporation has also set up a joint venture in October 2010 with Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Pvt. Ltd. (BRBNMPL) in the name of Bank Note Paper Mill India Private Limited (BNPMIPL) that will lead to indigenous production of major Cyliner mould vat mode Watermarked Bank Note (CWBN) paper requirement, import substitution thereby saving valuable foreign exchange and further aiding India becoming self-reliant in bank note paper production.

The sales turnover of the corporation has increased to Rs 4,647.57 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 4,413.85 crore in 2014-15, registering a growth of 5.30 per cent over the previous year.