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The counterfeiting of "stamp paper" is estimated to have caused a phenomenal loss of Rs 23,000 crore to the exchequer. Ferreting out the perpetrators of the "scam" and their minions and punishing them is, of course, a matter of great urgency.

Equally urgent is the need to devise "fool-proof" measures to prevent recrudescence of the epidemic of counterfeiting.

With the advent of digital technology and the emergence of tech-savvy counterfeiters it looks as though anything and everything can be duplicated or counterfeited with relative ease. Forty per cent of the US 20-dollar bills in circulation were reported to be fake.

So, the US Treasury recently came up with an entirely new design of the bill and mounted a massive ad-campaign to assure the public that it is "safer, smarter and more secure" with its "subtle background colours and enhanced security features", and an "embedded plastic security thread"; and a much-improved "water mark" and "colour-shifting ink". Within days of the introduction of the new bill, counterfeits started surfacing but detection now seems to be a lot faster.

India is also very IT-savvy and with the lure of easy and quick money the best brains could be engaged in the lucrative business of counterfeiting — currency or stamp paper.

Fake currency cannot be quickly apprehended as it passes into general circulation in the populace. Redesign of the impugned currency, by itself, will not be a permanent solution. Rapid acceptance and usage of credit cards instead of cash can indeed provide some relief.

Kangayam R. Rangaswamy

Madison (US)

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