Briefing the parliamentary committee, State Bank Governor Jamil Ahmed said that the State Bank has sent a proposal to the cabinet for the issuance of a new design of currency notes, which have been incorporated with modern security features. The State Bank board has finalized the designs of all the new currency notes and sent them to the federal government for approval.
According to the State Bank Governor, the final approval for the issuance of new currency notes will now have to be given by the federal government.
He said that the designs of currency notes of all denominations are being changed and modern technology is being introduced in the design and issuance of new notes. Along with this, the introduction of plastic currency notes is also being considered on an experimental basis.
The State Bank Governor clarified that no proposal to abolish the Rs 5,000 currency note is under consideration.
On this occasion, Chairman FBR Rashid Mahmood Langrial said that raising the issue of Rs 5,000 notes could lead to fluctuations in the economy, to which Chairman Committee Saleem Mandviwala said that when the Governor State Bank has made it clear that the Rs 5,000 note is not going away, the discussion on this issue is over.
The issue of SMS charges on withdrawal and deposit of funds by banks through ATMs was also discussed in the meeting.
The Chairman Committee said that charges are being collected from consumers on SMS alerts, to which the Governor State Bank explained that no charges are collected on SMSs that are mandatory, while charges are collected from consumers on messages related to additional services.
The Governor State Bank said that these charges are paid directly to telecom companies and the State Bank does not collect any money in this regard.
He revealed that in the last two years, the SMS charges of telecom companies have increased from Rs 0.04 to more than Rs 4. On this, the chairman of the committee, Saleem Mandviwala, said that now they will have to summon the telecom companies for further investigation so that it becomes clear who is charging how much.
Chairman FBR Rashid Mahmood Langrial said that the development of technology should not harm consumers.
In the meeting, a member also raised the issue of taking signatures on a large number of forms while opening a bank account.
Furthermore, a member of the committee asked a question about trade in currencies other than the dollar with China, Russia and other countries, to which the Governor of the State Bank said that trade with China is already taking place in Chinese currency, however, he avoided answering the question regarding currency rollover with the UAE, calling it a matter of the Foreign Office.