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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.<\/strong><\/p>\n The committee, which met under Mandviwalla\u2019s chairmanship, also expressed concern over the circulation of counterfeit currency notes in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are such sophisticated counterfeit notes in the market that no one can identify them,\u201d Mandviwalla said.<\/p>\n He said counterfeit Rs1,000 and Rs500 notes were widely circulating in the market, causing serious problems for ordinary citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a poor person receives a counterfeit note, their entire day\u2019s earnings can be wasted,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Mandviwalla called for the issuance of new currency notes to be completed at the earliest.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest tragedy is that counterfeit notes are being dispensed by bank ATMs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He further alleged that banks did not replace counterfeit notes received from ATMs, leaving customers with no remedy.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a counterfeit note comes out of a bank ATM, where are the people supposed to go?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Mandviwalla said the committee had handed three Rs5,000 notes to the State Bank of Pakistan\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n He said the State Bank had neither submitted a report on the matter nor returned the notes to the committee.<\/p>\n The deputy governor of the State Bank told the committee that work on new currency notes had begun.<\/p>\n He said the government had constituted a ministerial committee, headed by the finance minister, to oversee the process of designing the new currency notes.<\/p>\n