July 08, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 4, 1429

KARACHI, July 7: The State Bank of Pakistan reintroduced on Monday the five rupee banknote and launched a newly-designed Rs50 note.

Addressing a press conference, SBP Governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar said that all field offices of the SBP Banking Services Corporation would start issuing the new notes from Tuesday.

The central bank had scrapped the Rs5 note in 2005 on the ground that its life is only three months while a metal coin has a minimum life of 30 years.

Dr Akhtar said that advanced security features had been incorporated in the new notes, minimising the possibility of counterfeiting.

The vignette of Gawadar Port is printed on the reverse of Rs5 note and the vignette of the 8,611m Karakoram Peak is printed on the reverse of Rs50 note.

The SBP has already introduced newly-designed 10-, 20-, 100-, 500-, 1,000- and 5,000-rupee notes. The series, which was started on August 13, 2005, with the introduction of the 20-rupee banknote, has now been completed.

The central bank started issuing the new orange-green-yellow colour Rs20 note on March 22 this year, but the old brown colour note will continue to remain a legal tender.

The SBP governor said that all old notes would continue to remain in circulation along with the new banknotes.