Despite strict warning and heavy penalty from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) commercial banks in the provincial capital are reluctant to issue fresh currency notes to the general public on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr, Pakistan Today learnt on Thursday. A customer who was refused issuance of fresh currency notes by a teller of an international bank in Township area said that every year central bank issued new currency notes in large quantities but bank officials always tried to make money through black-marketing of the fresh currency notes.
He disclosed that he had visited three branches of different banks to obtain fresh currency notes but his efforts went in vain. He lamented that it had become a routine practice of commercial banks to refute supply of new currency notes during eid days but banking regulators never attempted to address the public grievance. Another customer, Asif Bashir, who had been a bank employee, said that every year central bank issued billions of rupees fresh currency notes during the holy month of Ramadan, but general public always faced similar problem due to non-availability of proper monitoring mechanism. He denied that bank officials were solely responsible for the public grievance and stated that bank officials always prefer to entertain the demand of their account holders. Bashir said that it was impossible for bankers to issue new currency notes to each and every citizen due to limited supply of new currency and heavy rush, especially in the last 10 days of Ramadan. Speaking to Pakistan Today, State Bank of Pakistan spokesman Syed Wasim Uddin revealed that the central bank had issued over Rs66.95 billion rupees from August 6 to August 24 in different denominations. He said that the SBP had issued strict warning and placed a mechanism of penalisation for commercial banks if it found any irregularity in issuance of fresh currency notes. He disclosed that the SBP had also received a number of complaints regarding issuance of new currency notes and would impose penalties on banks after thorough investigation.
He said that the central bank made elaborate arrangements for the adequate supply of fresh currency notes particularly of small denominations (Rs10 to Rs100) to commercial banks depending upon their branch network. Responding to a query, Waseem Uddin said that being the regulator the central bank was privileged to impose fine to banks, but it also needed to conduct a detailed audit of bank records. To address the public grievance State Bank was sending officials to commercial banks to ensure transparency in issuance of new currency notes, he added.
