NRB pays heed to panel, circulates Rs 650 million to ease demand

The high level committee formed by the Finance Ministry yesterday lived upto its expectations, a day after it set up the committee to tackle the growing shortage of high denomination currency notes during Dashain.
As per its directive, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) today distributed Rs 650 million to the banks and financial institutions.
In an unpredecented move, the Rs 940 million old notes that bore ex-governor of NRB Tilak Rawal’s signature, which had “some technical glitches”, was circulated today to ease the shortfall.
NRB governor Bijaya Nath Bhattarai convened a meeting today, which was attended by all the 26 commerical banks. However, twleve commerical banks sought Rs 100 million and the rest demanded Rs 200 million to fulfil the demand of their customers.
According to the bankers’ estimate, an additional Rs 5 billion would help to tide over the crisis (the delayed French consignment is on its way to Nepal with Rs 15.5 billion).
The central bank’s distributed Rs 350 million for development banks and finance companies.“Till date, we’ve pumped around Rs 18 billion in the market. But the demand is for an additional Rs 5 billion,” said deputy governor Krishna Bahadur Manandhar. The year-on-year demand for currency notes during Dashain is increasing, an indication to the overreliance on remittance economy and the growing population as well. Last year, he NRB had circulated only Rs 12 billion.
Going by this figure, the demand has doubled this Dashain. The French company, which bagged the contract for printing and supplying Rs 20 billion higher denomination notes, flunked the deadline by two months. “Earlier, it had sent Rs 4.5 billion. While, the rest Rs 15.5 billion is expected only on October 6. The consignment may reach the Kolkata port on October 1. We’ve requested our state carrier, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), to airlift the stuff from Kolkata to expedite the delivery process,” said Manandhar.

Collector's item in the
KATHMANDU; The currency notes that bear the picture of king Gyanendra Shah, the last monarch of the 240-year-old Shah dynasty, is being circulated from Thursday. The notes have the making of a collector’s item for two interesting historical reasons. They not only have deposed king’s picture but also have a “minor technical glitch”. There is a printing error on these notes. The Sanskrit verse on the back of the note should have read Asatoma Satgamaya instead of Asatama Sadgamay.