Production Up at SPMCIL

Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL) recently released its 2023/24 Annual Report, registering a rise in production, but a small drop (4%) to Rs 47.14 billion (US$555 million). Costs were up 7.7% to Rs 36.95 billion.

During the year, SPMCIL, which is owned by the Ministry of Finance, produced 9.7 billion banknotes, up by just over 8% compared with the previous year. Its facilities include two banknote printworks – Currency Note Press (CNP) in Nashik and Bank Note Press (BNP) in Dewas, an ink factory (also in Dewas), the Security Paper Mill (SPM) in Narmadapuram, and four mints (Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Noida). Currently, it produces approximately 40% of India’s banknotes (the rest is produced by Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Pvt Ltd, BRBNMPL, owned by the Reserve Bank of India).

For coins, SPMCIL is India’s sole supplier. During the year it produced 1.2 billion circulation coins, 21% more than the previous year. Even so, this only represented 15% of its total annual production capacity, and is a far cry from the peak years of production of 2015/16 and 2016/17, when over 9 billion coins were produced.