The decision has been taken to print plastic currency notes, the government announced on Friday in Parliament. The government also informed that procurement of material for plastic currency notes has started.

"It has been decided to print banknotes based on plastic or polymer substrate. The process of procurement has been initiated," Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said in a written reply in Lok Sabha to a query whether RBI proposes to print plastic currency notes in place of paper ones, reports PTI.

The Reserve Bank for long has been planning to launch plastic currency note after field trials. In February 2014, the government had informed 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. Plastic notes have an average life span of about five years and are difficult to imitate.

Also, currency notes made of plastic are cleaner than paper ones. Such notes were first introduced in Australia to safeguard against counterfeiting.

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