Commissioning of the New Bank Note Printing Line in Dewas

Union Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee's speech on the occasion of Commissioning of the New Bank Note Printing Line in Dewas

 Following is the text of Finance Minister`s Speech at Dewas

            " I am happy to be here today for commissioning the new bank note printing line at Dewas. I take this opportunity to congratulate the management of Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) and the officers and employees of Bank Note Press, Dewas on this momentous occasion.

            Following the recommendations of the Expenditure Reforms Commission and a study undertaken by IFCI, SPMCIL was formed as a company, corporatizing nine units including four mints, two currency printing presses, two security printing presses and one security paper mill.  These units were earlier functioning under the Currency and Coinage Division of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. The main objective of corporatization was to foster efficiency through speedy decision making and improving the pace of modernization for creating the state of art security products within our country.

            I am told that the performance of the corporation in terms of production, turnover, profitability and other financial and physical parameters has improved significantly over the last five years, since becoming a wholly owned corporation of the Government of India in the beginning of 2006. SPMCIL has returned about  Rs. 1000 crore of loans from the RBI and the Ministry of Finance and by this year end, it is likely to be a zero debt company. SPMCIL has been granted Mini Ratna category-I status.

            SPMCIL is making coins and currency not only for India but also for other countries. The expertise gained by the company over the years should be harnessed further by developing products for other countries and assuming a leadership position in this domain.

            Good managerial practices including transparency in operations and a sense of vision for the company are vital for sustaining innovation and business development. I am told that in order to bring further efficiency and transparency in SPMCIL, SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been introduced and implemented in all units of SPMCIL.   This should help SPMCIL in pursuing transparent business processes particularly in its procurement activities. A new revised Procurement Manual was also released in a step towards this direction.
            In order to create adequate indigenous capacity to meet our growing demand for currency and coinage we need to have the required flow of investments and retain our focus on modernization of SPMCIL. I am told that SPMCIL has an investment plan of about Rs 2500 crore covering the period 2009 to 2014. This is likely to give a big boost to the Indigenization efforts of the security products used in the creation of currency.

            I had constituted a Committee under Shri Shilabhadra Banerjee in December 2009 to inter-alia suggest a roadmap for progressive indigenization of various inputs. Following the recommendations of this Committee the Government has initiated steps to indigenise the production of banknote paper to meet our domestic requirements of banknote paper. A foundation stone of Bank Note Paper Line with annual capacity of 6000 MT. was laid on 17th December 2011 at SPM, Hoshangabad, where Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan Jee, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and Shri Suresh Pachouri jee from the Congress Party were also present. This unit is likely to be commissioned by October 2013. Similarly, a Joint Venture Bank Note Paper Mill at Mysore with an annual capacity of 12000 MT per annum is also scheduled to fully commence commercial production by April 2014. These steps would make the country nearly sel-sufficient in the production of banknote paper.
Click and see the entire speach