No Distribution of New Notes This Dashain; Only Old Notes Will Be Used

Kathmandu. This year, the Nepal Rastra Bank has decided not to distribute new notes during Dashain. Although new notes have been distributed during festivals like Dashain and Tihar every year, this time the bank will only provide old but crisp notes. This step is taken to reduce the printing costs of notes and to encourage digital transactions.

According to Assistant Spokesperson of the Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr. Dilliraj Pokhrel, this decision was made because printing new notes poses a significant financial burden. He said, “New notes printed at a high cost get dirty quickly and their lifespan decreases, so this year we are planning to give only crisp notes instead of new notes.”

Crisp notes collected from the market will be exchanged through the bank. These notes will look like new notes, so there will be no feeling of lack of new notes during the festival.

This time, the bank will also provide notes of denominations 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 for exchange. Each person will be allowed to exchange notes worth up to approximately 18,500 rupees. Currently, around 6 kharba 67 arba rupees worth of notes are in circulation in the Nepali market, which the bank has taken this step to manage effectively.

This decision by the Nepal Rastra Bank is expected to further promote the digital payment system and significantly contribute to reducing the costs of note printing. It is anticipated that this will bring stability to economic management and indicate a direction for further cost reduction in the future.