CB - don't make 'love' on currency notes

By Bandula Sirimanna

More and more people are defacing currency notes, many in the habit of writing on it, making calculations while some even put their signature with the hope of getting it back some day, says the Central Bank.

Many others write down their addresses and telephone numbers thinking some one will call them while it is also used as a mode to express their feelings of love. Such notes cannot be re-issued to the public for circulation and the Central Bank is compelled to destroy all these notes through a shredding machine and burnt later, under Bank supervision.

The Bank, which every year destroys millions of rupees worth of notes because of this problem, recently renewed a directive asking the public not to accept willfully damaged or disfigured currency notes, a senior Bank official said.

He says the Bank can refuse to accept these notes even though it is the authority to replace the currency.

The Bank receives an average 1,000 damaged notes per day. Damaging or disfiguring currency notes is a punishable offence under the Monetary Law Act and violators are liable to a minimum fine of Rs 1,500 rupees or three months jail.