KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan, in collaboration with the Pakistan Banks’ Association, has introduced an SMS service for the issuance of fresh currency notes to public.

The move is aimed at facilitating the public in acquiring new currency notes for Eidul Fitr, said a statement issued by the SBP on Sunday.

The fresh notes will be available from branches of nominated commercial banks called ‘e-branches’ from July 8.

Under the facility, people will be required to send from their mobile phones SMSs containing their CNIC/Smart Card numbers along with the codes of bank branches where they wanted to collect the notes to 8877.

The reference codes of nominated ‘e-branches’ are available on the SBP website (www.sbp.org.pk) and PBA website (www.pakistanbanks.org).

The applicants will get SMSs containing the transaction code, branch address and transaction validity date. The transaction code will be valid for a maximum of two working days.

The people will approach bank branches concerned along with their original CNICs/Smart Cards and short codes received from 8877 and get the defined quota of fresh notes.

The quota of fresh notes to be issued comprises one packet each of Rs10, Rs20 and Rs50 with an optional packet of Rs100 as per availability of stock with the branch concerned.

A person can get quota only once from his mobile phone number using his CNIC/Smart card number during Ramazan.

The service charges are Rs2 plus tax. Therefore, people are advised to avail the facility only once because additional SMSs will only add to their cost.

The process is being launched on experimental basis for obtaining fresh currency notes and depending on its success it may be expanded to more cities. For any complaint, the public may call SBP helpline at 021-3245-5470 and 021-3245-5125.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2015

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