INDIJA IŠIMA IŠ APYVARTOS SMULKIAS MONETAS:
Inflation coupled with the high price of production are the reasons India is planning to demonetize all of its circulating coinage below the denomination of 50 paise on June 30.
In anticipation of this move the Reserve Bank of India has recently asked both state operated banks and private lending institutions to accept these lower denomination coins for exchange purposes until the end of June.
According to a Feb. 2 The Times of India newspaper article, “The humble 25-paise coin represent[ing] ‘four annas’ of a bygone era will soon be history. The RBI has said that coins with a denomination of 25 paise and below will be pulled out of circulation by June 2011 after which they will cease to be legal tender.”
RBI press release 2010-2011/1095 from issued by J.D. Desai as assistant manager reads: “Members of [the] public can exchange small denomination coins at any branch of these banks … It may be recalled that in exercise of powers conferred by Section 15A of the Coinage Act 1906 (3 of 1906) the government of India has decided to withdraw the coins of denominations of 25 paise and below from circulation with effect from June 30, 2011. From this date, these coins shall cease to be legal tender for payment as well as on account.”
The Times of India article says, “Raging inflation has reduced the monetary value [of any low denomination coin] to such an extent that it will not buy even the cheapest lozenge. Also, the cost of minting these coins is higher than their value because of which they are no longer minted. Although many traders already refuse to accept payments in small change below 50 paise, these coins are currently legal tender and it is an offense to refuse them.”
According to the newspaper article, the RBI is looking to “reverse [the] flow of coins from circulation” prior to their becoming obsolete. Looking to the future the central bank is considering issuing coins in denominations as high as 10 rupees to replace paper bank notes of these same denominations “since these are high velocity notes and have to be replaced very frequently.”
The coins to be demonetized are in denominations of 10, 20, and 25 paise. India also uses 50-paise, 1-, 2-, and 5-rupee coins in circulation. Coins can be issued in denominations of as high as 1,000 rupees under the Coinage Act 1906.
Higher denomination bank notes are usually a signal a nation’s economy is in trouble. The Reuters news reporting agency recently reported, “India’s food price index rose 15.57 percent and the fuel price index climbed 10.87 percent in the year to Jan. 15 … Overall, the annual rate of inflation for primary articles, which have a weight of 20.12 per cent in the WPI [Wholesale Price Index], with base year 2004-05, stood at 17.58 per cent for the week ended Jan. 1, 2011 as compared to 20.20 percent for the previous week.”
According to the most edition of the MRI Bankers’ Guide to Foreign Currency, bank notes now in circulation in India are RBI issues in denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000 rupees. The MRI guide published an exchange rate of 44.05 rupees to the U.S. dollar.
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