From October 13 to October 22, the distribution of clean notes
Nepal Rastra Bank has announced that it is going to distribute clean notes from October 13 to October 22, in view of the demand for new notes during Dashain. Clean notes of smaller denominations will be available to exchange at the Currency Management Department, Banking Department and provincial offices of the bank. Nepal Rastra Bank has stated that one can obtain clean notes from its offices in Biratnagar, Janakpur, Birgunj, Pokhara, Siddharthnagar, Nepalgunj, and Dhangadhi. Similarly, it has made arrangements to exchange clean notes through various banks and financial institutions' branch offices. According to the Currency Management Department, customers can exchange notes from their own banks or nearby banks, financial institutions, or by visiting the Nepal Rastra Bank.
While the bank had been distributing new notes for Dashain every year, this time it will be distributing clean notes. In an attempt to deal with the expenses, Nepal Rastra Bank decided to abstain from distributing new notes during Dashain and Tihar. Although the bank had been considering replacing the distribution of new notes with the circulation of clean notes for the past couple of years, it has not put it into implementation as of yet. Although this may be a bit of inconvenience to the general public, as new notes have been usually distributed in relation to the Dashain festival, the bank believes the situation will get normalized slowly.
Nepal Rastra Bank shared that the decision was taken for the promotion of digital transactions and to save the cost of printing new notes. The bank is preparing to exchange older notes that are clean instead of distributing new ones. To them, the bank will provide fresh notes cleaned and returned from circulation in the market for the last one year. Exchange services will be provided for smaller denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 rupee notes as in previous years.
The exchange limit per head has been set at approximately NPR 18,500 this year. The bank had stopped printing new notes for Dashain, citing the fact that new notes become dirty quickly when put into circulation during festivals, thus reducing their life span. Normally, the life span of the notes is three to four years depending on the denomination, according to Nepal Rastra Bank. The bank further stated that it spent an average of NPR 1.3 billion annually to print new notes in the last five years.
