Half of currency notes carrying ex-king's portrait withdrawn

KATHMANDU: The central bank in the last one month has replaced more than half of the currency notes that had former king’s portrait.

“There may not be more than Rs 12-billion worth bank notes with former king’s portrait in circulation,” said Nepal Rastra Bank Spokesperson Bhaskar Mani Gyanwali. “Currency notes worth Rs 28.22 billion were in circulation in January end,” said Gyanwali, hoping that by mid-March, the cut-off date set by the bank, the remaining bank notes will also be replaced with the new ones. “We hope to pull all the bank notes by the deadline.”

Gyanwali made it clear that though after mid-March the currency notes will have limited acceptance, they won’t be demonetised.

“The currency’s intrinsic value will be intact but it won’t be widely accepted. The central bank will designate some commercial banks soon to exchange the currency with former king’s portrait with new ones.”

Under the Clean Note Policy, the central bank had decided to withdraw old currency notes with former king’s portrait and replace them with new notes that have Mt Everest image but without demonetising them. Replacing old bills with the news ones, however, is a common and regular phenomenon. Average age of a currency note ranges from one year to one-and-a-half- years in Nepal.

The security features in Nepali currency notes generally don’t last more than a-year-and-a-half and thereafter it becomes difficult to identify whether a note is counterfeit or genuine. Careless handling of currency notes has been costing the central bank a huge sum of money, as it has to print new notes every two years, according to NRB, which is also planning to launch some awareness programmes to educate the general public about proper handling of currency notes so that their life could be extended.

Cash crunch in October 2009 had forced the central bank to float the currency notes — that had already been recalled — in the market.

However, this time, the central bank claims that it has enough bills in its stock to replace all the notes that will be withdrawn from the circulation.

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