The Hindu : New coins introduced

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 02, 2003

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National

New coins introduced

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI SEPT. 1. The new two-rupee coin introduced on the occasion of the 150 years of the Indian Railways today will soon enable a person to buy a platform ticket and at the same time know his or her weight.

The Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, said this here at a function organised to mark the launch of coins in the denomination of Rs. 100 and Rs. 2 by the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, to commemorate the 150 years of the Railways.

He said the Ministry was considering the scheme to popularise the coins while attempting to improve compliance and generate higher revenues.

Indicating that platform tickets will become cheaper by a rupee, Mr. Kumar said, ``we are planning to install machines which would enable a person to buy a platform ticket that will also display his/her weight, on insertion of the new two-rupee coin.''

Currently, platform tickets cost three rupees. The Ministry is in touch with vendors, who can install such machines at railway stations, and the scheme would come up shortly.

``The scheme would generate more revenue for the Consolidated Fund of India through sale of more platform tickets," he said.

Mr. Kumar requested Mr. Singh to increase the minting of the new coins, as only five crore coins have been issued for circulation in the first batch.

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