Govt extends deadline for old banknotes

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday chaired a meeting of the federal cabinet to discuss 15-point agenda, ARY News reported.

The cabinet approved extension in exchanging old-design currency notes of four values – including Rs1,000 – to give benefit to certain individuals.

These notes had been declared trash papers five years ago by the PML-N government.

After the approval, certain individuals can exchange the old notes till December 31, 2022. Both the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had recommended giving the extension in the deadline.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had banned the use of old-design currency notes having value of Rs10, Rs50, Rs100 and Rs1,000 with effect from December 1, 2016.

However, the former government allowed the exchange of old banknotes from commercial banks by the end of November 2016 and from the SBP Banking Services Corporation (BSC) field offices till December 31, 2021.