Plastic currency notes in India soon, says RBI, as cash sees a surge

1 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jun 5, 2026 01:27 PM IST

RBI governor Sanjay Malhotra. (Express Photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is considering a proposal to launch polymer currency notes in the country, Governor Sanjay Malhotra announced on Friday.

The proposal is currently at its preliminary stage, Malhotra said.

The move comes almost a decade after the central bank first floated the proposal to print plastic currency notes, as paper currency experiences a surge. The higher cost of printing paper currency and an increase in the volume of them being discarded later has likely contributed to the move.

In February 2014, the government had informed the Parliament that one billion plastic notes of Rs 10 denomination would be introduced in a field trial in five cities selected for their geographical and climatic diversity. The selected cities were Kochi, Mysore, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar.

The initiative, at the time, was put on hold, as technological and operational issues surfaced.