Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday rejected Aam Aadmi party’s (AAP) charges of giving contract for printing of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes to a blacklisted company, saying his ministry has no dealing with the British company named in the “false” social media campaign.
“Another false campaign on the social media by the AAP. Ministry of Finance has no dealings with the British Company named in this campaign,” Jaitley said in a tweet.
Another false campaign on the social media by the AAP. Ministry of Finance has no dealings with the British Company named in this campaign
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) December 8, 2016
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal retweeted a tweet of @AamAadmiParty, which said, “Biggest currency printing order of Independent India has been given by Modi Govt to a blacklisted Co.”
Earlier AAPExpress tweeted that “According to reports Delarue has been hired to print the new 500 2000 notes”.
“It is shocking to note that the company Delarue was mentioned in the blacklist of Panama list,” it added.
In response to an RTI request filed recently, the RBI too denied that it had outsourced the printing jobs to a third party.
The RTI reply said, “Banknotes are printed by four currency note printing presses. Two of the currency note printing presses are owned by the government of India and two are owned by the Reserve Bank, through its wholly owned subsidiary, the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Ltd(BRBNMPL)…. No separate contract has been awarded to print Rs 2,000 banknote to any company/organization.”
From the RBI’s RTI reply, it’s clear that the central government has not outsourced the job to print new Rs 2,000 or Rs 500 notes to a third party.
But AAP’s Dilip Pandey tweeted a screenshot of the BRBNMPL website , which states that “machinery at Mysore Site has been supplied by M/s. De La Rue Giori, now KBA Giori, Switzerland and that of Salboni by M/s. Komori Corporation, Japan.”
According to the BRBNMPL website, while the technology may have been provided by De La Rue Giori, now KBA Giori, the company has no involvement in printing the new banknotes.
But AAP, in its latest press release, alleged that De La Rue, was blacklisted by the RBI in February 2011 following a CBI probe against the company in 2010-11.