Maldives scraps old currency notes

The Maldives Central Bank on Monday August 1 officially halted circulation and transactions of the old Maldivian currency series sans the MVR 5 cash note, according to media reports. This development should interest Sri Lankans, many of who are working there or take holiday trips there.
The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) stated that the old currency notes cannot be used for transactions August 1 onwards, but a period of five years has been offered to exchange them for the new currency series “Ran Dhiha Faheh” at MMA. Meanwhile, the banks will offer exchange of notes until the end of this year, one report in the mihaaru.com website said.
Following the public release of Ran Dhiha Faheh, MMA had initially passed May 31 as the deadline to halt circulation and transaction of the old currency notes. The authority had extended the deadline to the end of July earlier last month.

MMA declared that only the new currency Ran Dhiha Faheh and MVR 5 cash note of the old series can be used for business transactions from August 1 forth. The old MVR 5 cash note will be scrapped after the brand new MVR 5 coin of the Ran Dhiha Faheh series is released, it said.
“Ran Dhiha Faheh” was released into public circulation last January 26. The new currency, featuring a new design, is the first Maldivian series to be printed on polymer paper.
According to MMA, 91.5 per cent (MVR 2.6 billion) of the old currency notes had been removed from circulation by July 25, with MVR 247 million still remaining.