150 million Re.1 notes to be printed every year

New Delhi: The Indian government has decided to print 150 million currency notes of Re.1 denomination every year from January 1, 2015, parliament was told on Thursday.

"Government has issued gazette notification dated December 15, 2014 to print Re.1 currency notes with effect from January 1, 2015, under the provisions of the Coinage Act," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The government has, thereby, decided to print 150 million one rupee notes per year, he said.

The minister also informed the upper house that printing of Rs.1, 2 and 5 denomination notes were discontinued by the Reserve Bank of India because of the high cost of printing involved.

"At present, there is no proposal to issue Rs.2 and 5 denomination notes," he added.