A day after the Union Ministry of Economic Affairs decided to apply indelible ink on the fingers of those coming to exchange demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes to avoid repeated transactions, Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd. (MPVL) in Mysuru on Wednesday supplied 30,000 vials of the ink to banks across the country through the Mysuru facility of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The State-run company had received orders for supplying 2,96,500 vials of the ink from banks and production was stepped upto meet the demand.
The highest quantity of ink — 1,25,100 vials — had been sought by the head office of Bank of India, followed by the State Bank of India, Bengaluru, which placed orders for 1,00,000 vials. Each vial contains 5 ml of ink. Company chairman H.A. Venkatesh said 15,000 vials were supplied on Wednesday morning and another 15,000 in the evening.
“We hope to supply the orders received so far in five to six days. As and when the ink is produced, it will be supplied through the RBI,” he said.
Each vial of ink costs Rs. 116 and the company is expected to earn revenue of Rs. 3.5 crore from the ink supplied to banks. More orders are expected in the due course, said general manager C. Harakumar.
He said the ink mark remains on the fingers for at least 30 days, and 5 ml was sufficient to apply on 500 people.
According to Mr. Venkatesh, the company had sufficient raw materials to cater to the demand for the ink.
