New Delhi: The Centre has reported a huge increase in the number of counterfeit notes over the past five years. The number of fake ₹500 notes has risen by 312%, while the number of fake ₹2,000 notes has increased by 166%, according to figures from the Ministry of Finance. This information was provided by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in response to a question from DMK MP T M Selvaganapathy.

However, the Centre also reported a 15% decrease in fake ₹500 notes in the 2024 fiscal year. The number of counterfeit ₹500 notes had increased by 102% in the 2022 fiscal year. Despite the rise in fake ₹500 and ₹2,000 notes, the overall number of counterfeit notes has seen a 30% reduction, according to government data.

In the 2018-19 fiscal year, 21.865 million fake ₹500 notes were detected. This number rose to 9.1110 crore in 2022-23. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, it decreased to 8.5711 crore. The number of counterfeit ₹2,000 notes increased from 2.1847 crore in 2018-19 to 2.6035 crore in 2023-24, according to the Centre's data.