Concerned over the counterfeit Indian currency notes threatening to destabilise India's economy, the government plans to approach Pakistan government with evidence that these notes are printed in its territory and assert that it should put a stop to it.

Most of the fake Indian currency notes (FICNs) seized by the security agencies and recovered through the banking channels are suspected to be printed in Pakistan and pushed into India through land, sea and air routes via Nepal, Bangladesh, Dubai, Colombo, Singapore, etc, a top Finance Ministry official said.

He said the kind of special security paper and special inks used for printing the notes can not be accessible to any private person and hence India has suspicion that they are being printed by the Pakistan government's own security presses.

There are no confirmed estimates of fake currency in circulation in India but the fact that Pakistan is pumping it in India indicates its attempt to destabilise India's economy, the official said, pointing out that it can not go by the Reserve Bank of India's claim that the fake currency is very, very negligible.

The RBI's claim is based on the seized currency -- less than 0.0001 per cent of the total notes in circulation, i.e. eight notes per million pieces, while there is no way to find out how much such currency remains undetected. The quality of these notes is so good that even the experienced bank personnel falter in accepting deposits of the fake notes.

The value of fake currency seized and recovered during the last four years is: Rs 25.68 crore in 2008, Rs 23 crore in 2009, Rs 25.82 crore in 2010 and Rs 1.10 crore up to March 4 this year.

The Finance Ministry has created a separate directorate of currency (DoC) to deal with the problem. The directorate is examining incorporation of additional security features in the currency notes to make counterfeiting very difficult. Sources said the new security features will be incorporated in the new series of the bank notes to be issued in 2012.

The government has also designated CBI as the nodal agency to monitor investigation of the fake currency note cases and constituted a high-level committee headed by Union home Secretary to monitor and draw a comprehensive strategy to combat the menace of the counterfeit notes.

Other measures taken to curb circulation of the fake currency in the country included stepped-up vigilance by the Border Security Force and Customs to prevent their smuggling and the public is being disseminated information on the security features through print and electronic media to help them detect the fake currency.

Also, all public sector banks have set up forged notes vigilance cells in their head offices to tackle the menace of the fake currency getting deposited in their branches despite all precautions by the staff.