The Union of Money Exchangers of Sarai Shahzada expressed concerns over the large number of worn-out banknotes in the market and called for the printing of new banknotes.
A spokesman for the Union of Money Exchangers of Sarai Shahzada, Abdul Rahman Zirak, said that the worn-out banknotes create hurdles in daily business in the market.
“There is a need for the printing of new banknotes and for new banknotes to be injected into the market. The quality of the banknotes must be considered. We have a lot of problems in the market. The worn-out banknotes are a big problem in the market,” he said.
Meanwhile, some money exchangers expressed frustration and said that the Central Bank is rejecting worn-out banknotes.
“The bank doesn’t take the worn-out banknotes. We used to collect the worn-out banknotes and we would take them to the Central Bank but now the bank is not taking them,” said Sarwar, a money exchanger.
“When we give worn-out banknotes to the clients, they don’t take them and say the markets will not accept it; this really is a big problem,” said Omidullah Mangal, a money exchanger.
There are also concerns that the people involved in daily business are not careful with how they treat the banknotes.
“We should try to take good care of the banknotes. I call on the citizens to use the banknotes well,” said Abdul Qayoum, a resident of Kabul.
TOLOnews tried to obtain comments of the Central Bank but did not receive a response. The National Procurement Authority (NPA) said Sunday the contract for printing afghani banknotes was awarded to Polish Security Printing Works (PWPW).
According to the NPA, the total value of the printed notes will be 10 billion afghanis.
The new banknotes will be in denominations of 10, 20, 50 and 100 Afghanis, the NPA said. The contract is worth $8.5 million US dollars.
The NPA said the company will implement the contract between six to 18 months.
The contract will provide for increased afghani use in the eastern provinces, the NPA said, as local authorities in the provinces of Nangarhar, Khost, Ghazni, Kunar, Paktika, Kandahar and Laghman have recently prevented the use of Pakistani rupees.—Tolonews
