India might be opposed to China's One Belt, One Road initiative, seen as a potential infringement on its sovereignty. However, if a report from a Hong Kong-based news daily is to be believed, a company owned by the Chinese government has won contracts for printing currency from India.
According to South China Morning Post, India is one among the many countries that have outsourced currency printing to China.
Economic Affairs Secretary Subash Chandra Garg has categorically denied the claims in the report. "Reports about any Chinese currency printing corporation getting any orders for printing Indian currency notes are totally baseless. Indian currency notes are being and will be printed only at Indian government and RBI currency presses," Garg said.
While the government has come forward with an explanation, the Reserve Bank of India's silence on the report has raised a few eyebrows. RBI looks into currency management in the country and is yet to issue a statement on the report.
Earlier, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had raised concerns about the claims in the report and asked Finance Minister Piyush Goyal and Arun Jaitley to clear the air. "If true, this has disturbing national security implications. Not to mention making it easier for Pak to counterfeit. @PiyushGoyal @arunjaitley please clarify!" Shashi Tharoor had tweeted.
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Apart from India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Brazil and Poland are the other countries named in the report. Reportedly, the company, China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, has seen a huge spike in currency printing demands from countries.
Ironically for India, the report says, "most of the demand comes from participants in the Belt and Road Initiative". India has been opposed to China's Belt and Road initiative since its genesis. The news report claims that China sees printing foreign currencies as an opportunity to increase Beijing's "influence on the world economy and geopolitics".
According to the South China Morning Post report, China "did not print foreign currency until recently". However, that changed in 2013 with Beijing launching the belt and road plan, involving about 60 countries from Asia, Europe to Africa. "Since then the company had “seized the opportunities brought by the initiative” and “successfully won contracts for currency production projects in a number of countries..." the report says.
"Some governments have asked Beijing not to publicise the deal because they are worried such information could compromise national security or trigger “unnecessary debates at home", the report quotes a person as saying.
Currency printing is a significant strategic move by China. "Beijing has regarded money printing capability as being as crucial as its atomic bomb programme to its national security amid fears its enemies could use fake notes to disrupt the economy," the report says.