State Saves Rs 1.5 Billion by Not Issuing New Banknotes

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) saved Rs 1.5 billion this year by not printing fresh banknotes for the Dashain and Tihar festivals, leading to a sharp decrease in currency exchange activities.

Last year, the central bank issued Rs 14 billion worth of new currency notes in Kathmandu Valley alone and Rs 29 billion nationwide for exchange. However, this year, currency exchanges were limited to around Rs 4 billion, a reduction of nearly Rs 25 billion compared to the previous year.

According to Basudev Bhattarai, director of NRB’s Currency Management Department, approximately Rs 2 billion worth of notes were issued by NRB’s subordinate offices, with an additional Rs 2 billion from other banks for exchange.

NRB avoided the logistical challenge of managing additional human resources for printing new notes. Last year, the central bank spent about Rs 1.5 billion on printing new currency.

The NRB said nearly 50 percent of the country's 6.6 million households—around 3.3 million families—did not receive new banknotes. The central bank explained that printing notes of different denominations for half the population i.e. 3.3 million families would have cost up to Rs 6 billion.

This year, the bank focused on promoting the use of clean currency notes instead of issuing new ones. -- RSS