Imbert rubbishes counterfeit polymer report

FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert has rubbished a media report that counterfeit polymer $100 notes have been in circulation for months.

He was responding to an urgent question in the House on Wednesday from Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh, who asked about reports of statements by members of the Bankers Association (BATT) Tuesday that counterfeit polymer $100 notes have been in circulation since December last year.

Indarsingh asked what was Government's plan to deal with this, given that one reason for switching to the polymer note was to address counterfeiting.

Imbert said there has been no statement from BATT that counterfeit polymer notes have been in circulation since December last year.

"That is misinformation propagated by a daily newspaper."

He reported that he spoke to the BATT president himself and she said no such statement had been made to any newspaper. He said what was told to a newspaper by a person who is in charge of security matters at one of the banks was that he saw a video on social media "which all of us have seen,"

He continued: "Somebody created a video on social media copying notes. We don't even know if that video was real, we don't know if it was fabricated, we don't even know if it was concocted.

"But what we do know is that BATT never said that counterfeit $100 bills have been in circulation since last December. That is simply untrue."

He said BATT told him counterfeiting is a regular occurrence all over the world.

"People always try to counterfeit money. They counterfeited the old bills and in the future they will try to counterfeit the new bills.

"The good thing is that the new bills have far more security features than the old bills and are far more difficult to counterfeit."

Indarsingh asked if the minister was taking into consideration the headline in a newspaper on Tuesday of "Fake $100 notes" and whether Government was moving forward with its plan for issuance of polymer notes for $5, $10, $20 and $50 (the latter are already polymer).

Imbert replied: "So a newspaper put something on a front page that says 'fake bills.' If the honourable member had read the story..."

However, Indarsingh interrupted Imbert while he was speaking.

Imbert said: "What is this? What kind of behaviour is that?"

Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George intervened and told Indarsingh he asked a question and she was sure he wanted to hear the answer.

Imbert pointed out the newspaper story said the person who allegedly brought the alleged fake bills wished to remain anonymous.

"There's no source. How does one know the entire story was not a concoction?"

He repeated that the security features on the new bills are far more robust and better than the old bills.

"Counterfeiting is something people have tried from time immemorial and they will try it again.

"However, the polymer nature of the bills, the clear transparent window, the Braille dots on it and the multiple inserts and other security features make the polymer bills much more difficult to counterfeit than the old cloth bills."