Clean currency notes
View(s):Letter
By A.G. Weerasinghe , Gangodawila.
The Roadmap for 2013 presented by the Central Bank envisages the old notes being withdrawn from circulation and replacing with new currency notes (to improve the image of the country). The same assurance was given last year by the Central Bank in the 2012 Road Map. However after 12 months we have not seen any appreciable change in the quality of currency notes in circulation.
Torn, disfigured, dirty, obliterated and smelly currency notes are a plenty and still in circulation. As the Governor has quite rightly pointed out the state of development of a country could be seen in the way people handle their currency notes. We have progressed from an underdeveloped country to a developing country but such development is not displayed the way we handle our currency notes. Commercial banks play a vital role in ensuring that unserviceable notes do not go back into circulation. Although this happened several decades back banks have given up the practice of sorting unserviceable notes and turning them over to the Central Bank for destruction. Probably banks are more interested in cutting down their expenses than attending to matters not directly connected to making money. Our senior citizens will remember during the early seventies when punched currency notes on their way to the incinerator got back into circulation through corrupt officials. Co-operation of the commercial banks is vital to enhance the quality of currency notes in the hands of people.
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