ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue Senator Saleem Mandviwalla on Tuesday expressed serious concern over reports that bank ATMs were dispensing counterfeit Rs5,000 and Rs1,000 notes.
The committee, which met under Mandviwalla’s chairmanship, also expressed concern over the circulation of counterfeit currency notes in the country.
“There are such sophisticated counterfeit notes in the market that no one can identify them,” Mandviwalla said.
He said counterfeit Rs1,000 and Rs500 notes were widely circulating in the market, causing serious problems for ordinary citizens.
“If a poor person receives a counterfeit note, their entire day’s earnings can be wasted,” he said, adding that labourers, including domestic workers, security guards and other daily-wage earners, were increasingly reluctant to accept Rs1,000 and Rs500 notes for fear that they might be fake.
Mandviwalla called for the issuance of new currency notes to be completed at the earliest.
“The biggest tragedy is that counterfeit notes are being dispensed by bank ATMs,” he said.
He further alleged that banks did not replace counterfeit notes received from ATMs, leaving customers with no remedy.
“If a counterfeit note comes out of a bank ATM, where are the people supposed to go?” he asked.
Mandviwalla said the committee had handed three Rs5,000 notes to the State Bank of Pakistan’s deputy governor a year earlier for verification. According to him, one of the three notes was counterfeit, but even the deputy governor was unable to identify it.
He said the State Bank had neither submitted a report on the matter nor returned the notes to the committee.
The deputy governor of the State Bank told the committee that work on new currency notes had begun.
He said the government had constituted a ministerial committee, headed by the finance minister, to oversee the process of designing the new currency notes.
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The deputy governor said the State Bank wanted to ensure that there were no objections to the design of the new notes and that the government’s ministerial committee had already approved the design.
Senator Mandviwalla questioned the process of appointing consultants for the new currency notes.
He said the State Bank had hired a consultant for the design of the notes who would also be involved in the printing process.
“This does not happen anywhere in the world. All details of this tender should be provided,” Mandviwalla said.
Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani said the State Bank had been working on the new currency notes for two years but had yet to complete the process.
“Two years have passed, but the State Bank has not been able to complete this work,” he said.
The deputy governor said the State Bank was working to ensure that the new notes met the required standards and remained in circulation for a long period.
The committee also sought details of the tendering process and the steps being taken by the State Bank to prevent counterfeit currency from entering circulation through banking channels.
