State saved 1.5 billion for not issuing new banknotes

Kathmandu: As Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) did not print fresh banknotes this year targeting Dashain and Tihar festivals, the act of people exchanging currencies has decreased sharply.

Last year, the Central Bank issued Rs 14 billion worth of new currency notes in Kathmandu Valley alone and Rs 29 billion across the country for exchange. This year the rate of exchange of currency notes is limited to around four billion rupees, which is almost 25 billion less in comparison to the previous year.

According to Basudev Bhattarai, Director of Rastra Bank Currency Management Department, this year, it is estimated that around 2 billion notes have been issued by NRB’s subordinate offices and the same amount from other banks for exchange.

The bank did not have to deal with the hassle of managing additional human resources for the sake of printing new notes. According to Bhattarai, almost one and a half billion rupees was spent on printing new currency notes last year. There are Rs 6.6 million households across the country.

Even though 50 percent i.e. 3.3 million families do not have access to new banknotes, it costs up to 6 billion rupees to print notes of different denominations for half of them, the NRB said. This year, the bank has emphasized the use of clean currency notes instead of printing new notes.

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