Plastic Currency To Hit Market Soon: Govt Approves Polymer Rs. 10 & Rs. 20 Notes For Field Trials

A plastic makeover is on the way for India's currency notes as the government has approved a Reserve Bank of India proposal to field-trial polymer, or plastic, banknotes in the Rs. 10 and Rs. 20 denominations, Parliament was informed this week.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman confirmed the approval in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, while a separate written reply from Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary had the same confirmation to the Lok Sabha a few weeks earlier.

The RBI, after the recommendation from its central board, sent the government a proposal under Section 25 of the RBI Act, 1934, for one billion pieces each of Rs. 10 and Rs. 20 polymer notes, for field trials.

That's 200 crore notes in total, worth roughly Rs. 3,000 crore, that will be tested for durability and everyday performance under Indian conditions

If the trials go well, there will be regular issuance of polymer notes in these two denominations, without any change of the paper currency already in your wallet.

Sitharaman told the Rajya Sabha, "The proposal has been approved by the government. As per the RBI, these polymer banknotes are proposed to be issued along with paper substrate-based banknotes."

This implies that the already existing paper currency will also be in circulation, and they are not retiring anytime soon
RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra in his post-Monetary Policy Committee media briefing on August 5, said, "the central bank is targeting circulation of polymer notes by FY28, which would put the notes in people's hands sometime between April 2027 and March 2028."

"There is still a pilot going on for polymer notes," he added

Why Only Rs. 10 & Rs. 20 Are Being Launched Now

Technically, when it comes down to sheer wear and tear, these denominations are the ones that change hands the most in daily life, on buses, at tea stalls, in small retail transactions, which means they get soiled and torn faster than higher-value notes and need replacing more often.

So here the Polymer notes come into the picture since they are being built to outlast that cycle. According to international studies cited by the RBI, polymer banknotes last way longer than paper ones so they can help reduce the RBI's printing bill over time.

What are Polymer Notes?

Even though they are called plastic notes, they aren't made from ordinary plastic. Polymer banknotes use Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene, or BOPP, a durable, non-porous material that resists water, dirt, and tearing far better than the cotton-pulp paper India currently uses for bank notes

India is not the first country to introduce polymer notes. Other countries like Australia and 60 other countries, including the UK, Canada, and New Zealand now have polymer notes