Business Desk
Mar 15, 2024
As soon as Ramadan begins, the demand for crisp currency notes of various denominations increase as people prefer distributing fresh notes for Eidi.
While the demand for these notes is very high the supple remains subdued and people struggle to get notes which leads to an increase in festive black markets established only ahead of Eid ul Fitr.
Since last two years the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and commercial banks have not issued new currency notes to the people ahead of Eid ul Fitr, which allowed the currency mafia to take advantage of the situation.
Read more: Eidul Fitr 2024 — Minimum Fitra, Fidya amount announced
This time around, according to well-informed sources, no such decision has been taken by the central bank. Therefore, people are looking towards currency mafia which charge extra on for providing notes.
Last year Rs150-Rs200 were charged additionally on a bundle of Rs10 notes, while more than Rs300 on a bundle of Rs20, Rs800-1,000 on a bundle of Rs100 notes and Rs1,000-1,500 on a bundle of Rs500 notes.
Previously, people were able to get new currency notes on the occasion of Eid ul Fitr from the counters of the SBP.
Later the central bank started issuing notes through the SMS method in which the people sent their CNIC numbers and in return, they received a code which was needed to receive fresh notes from banks.
However, since 2022 the central bank has remained tighlipped about the people.
