KARACHI: The government has decided to phase out all old-designed currency notes till the end of next calendar year, said the State Bank on Wednesday.

“As per federal government gazette notification (June 4, 2015), such currency notes will cease to be legal tender from Dec 1, 2016,” said the SBP.

Earlier, Rs5 currency notes and the old designed Rs500 notes were demonetised. Now all the remaining old-designed notes of Rs10, 50, 100 and 1,000 will be demonitised, said the SBP.

The State Bank issued a new banknotes series which started with the issuance of Rs20 denomination banknote in 2005 to improve security, durability and aesthetic quality of banknotes. The process of issuance of complete series of new designed banknotes, comprising eight denominations (Rs5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 5000) was completed in 2008.

The last day to exchange all old designed banknotes from banks is Nov 30, 2016. All old designed banknotes will cease to be legal tender on Dec 1, 2016 while the last day to exchange all such banknotes from SBP BSC field offices is Dec 31, 2021.

The commercial and microfinance banks will accept the old-designed banknotes of Rs10, 50, 100 and 1000 and exchange the same with the new banknotes and coins of all denominations up to Nov 30, 2016, only.

However, SBP BSC field offices will continue to accept the old designed banknotes of Rs10, 50, 100 and 1000 from general public up to Dec 31, 2021.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2015

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