“No plan to replace paper currency with plastic banknotes,” SBP refutes reports

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Saturday strongly refuted the reports regarding replacing the paper currency with polymer (plastic) banknotes.

Calling the reports baseless and without substance, SBP said: “There is no such plan or suggestion currently under consideration regarding the change in the substrate of banknotes from paper to the polymer”.

It added that SBP uses cotton-based paper substrate which is manufactured locally by the Security Papers Limited, using primarily local raw materials.

A day earlier, reports claimed that the central bank had planned to introduce plastic currency notes in the country to curb the flow of fake banknotes in the market.

The central bank, according to reports, would brief the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) team, which is in Pakistan for talks on the next installment of the $3.3 billion bailout package, on its plan to replace currency notes.

The central bank had last redesigned the Rs500 currency note in January 2010. Before that, the new design of the Rs1,000 note was introduced in February 2007, and the new Rs5,000 note in May 2006.