The government has approved the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) proposal to introduce polymer banknotes in the denominations of 10 and 20 rupees. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed that RBI had sent a proposal to the government for the introduction of one billion pieces each of ten and twenty rupee polymer banknotes for field trials. He said regular issuance of polymer banknotes in these two denominations will be done after successful completion of field trials.

The minister said the RBI had informed that, as per international studies, the life span of polymer banknotes is significantly higher than that of paper banknotes. Mr Chaudhary added that the introduction of polymer banknotes is currently in a preliminary phase and the impact on digital payments could be ascertained only after regular issuance of these notes. He said, as per the RBI, polymer banknotes are proposed to be issued along with paper substrate-based banknotes, and there is no proposal to replace paper currency with polymer substrate-based banknotes.