NRB asks people to return notes with kings' image

REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, Jan 21: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) - the central monetary -- has appealed to the public to exchange banknotes bearing portraits of former kings from nearby banks. It has also warned people that they might have to approach certain designated counters if such notes are not exchanged by mid-March.

Top NRB officials made such an appeal at an interaction on clean notes policy with bankers here on Friday.

The central bank on the government´s request has been withdrawing the notes bearing portraits of former kings after the country was declared a republican state. However, the rate of withdrawal has remained pretty slow and concerned officials said this has been forcing them delay the pace of jumping into clean note regime.

According to NRB records, the central bank so far has withdrawn only Rs 18.73 billion worth of such notes from the market. Such notes worth Rs 28.22 billion are under circulation, according to the central bank.

“Our target is to withdraw them from the market by mid-March. If people did not return such notes to the banks now, we are planning to ask them approach certain designated counters to get them exchanged,” said NRB Governor Dr Yuva Raj Khatiwada.

NRB plans to replace banknotes with king´s portrait with those bearing the image of Mt Everest. So far, the central bank has already circulated Rs 111.96 billion worth of banknotes bearing the image of Mount Everest.

The central bank took the initiative of jumping into clean note regime after it adopted clean note policy in the monetary policy for the current fiscal year. Under this, it will ensure that people get high quality clean notes and withdraw soiled notes from the market. Under it, the central bank eventually plans to make stapled and handwritten notes not usable, and replace staples on the note packet by paper or plastic bands.

“Sadly though, it is the banks themselves that use staple on the notes,” said another NRB official.

Ashwini Kumar Thakur, executive director at NRB´s Currency Management Division, urged the banks to sort out notes bearing king´s portrait collected from the public and exchange them with the central bank.

“We still find ATMs issuing soiled notes and notes bearing king´s portrait. This should stop,” said Thakur.

He even appealed to the people to take care of banknotes in their possession as early damage of note and the need to replace them only add cost on general consumers themselves. “Printing a note has a cost. Hence, it is wise to properly handle the notes,” he said.

According to a central bank report, the life of notes in Nepal is much lower than neighboring countries because Nepalis do not handle them with care. The report even says that more than 50 percent of notes issued during Dashiain festival, when the central bank issues maximum number of new notes, are returned at unusable condition.