As per the announcement published in print media by the SBP, the bigger size currency notes of Rs 500 of the old design will be demonetised (discontinued) and the new-design, small-sized currency notewill continue to be legal tender effective October 01, 2011.
Such an announcement was also made couple of years back when old design notes of Rs 5 were demonetised. I know lot of people who had a fair amount of Rs 5 currency with them and were not able to get them exchanged from the banks within the given time frame for one or the other reason. Ultimately they lost all their money.
This time, the denomination is bigger and if people don’t get their money exchanged before the 30th September, 2011 they will lose their money again and the loss will be much much bigger.
In order to save the public’s hard earned money and avoid rush at banks as the deadline approaches, I have a suggestion for SBP. Instead of discontinuing the old currency notes of Rs 500 with effect from October 01, 2011, why not slow down the withdrawal procedure and keep decreasing its face value by Rs 25 every month for a stipulated time period.
By doing this, State Bank of Pakistan will be able to generate huge amount of revenue and people having old currency notes of Rs.500 in their possession will not lose all their money. If spread over time, and the note being devalued at a rate of Rs 25/month, the exercise will end by April 2013.
M RAFIQUE ZAKARIA
Karachi
