Black marketers sell crisp banknotes at exorbitant prices

Following a decision by the State Bank of Pakistan against issuing new currency notes ahead of Eidul Fitr this year, the bundles of new and old banknotes are being sold at higher rates in the black market.

The currency dealers, who have collected all the crisp, new currency notes from the financial institutions with the collusion of their staff, are now selling these at higher rates while the requests of the citizens, who visit the banks to get Rs10 and Rs20 notes, are being denied by the bank staff.

According to sources, a bunch of Rs10 banknotes, costing Rs1,000, is being sold for Rs1400 in the black market. Similarly, a bunch of Rs20 banknotes, whose actual price is Rs2,000, is being sold at Rs2,400.

Further, a bunch of Rs50 banknotes, costing Rs5,000, is being sold at Rs5,500 while a bunch of Rs100 currency notes is being sold at Rs500 in excess of its actual price.

Last year, the price of a bunch of Rs10 and Rs20 banknotes were Rs1,250 and Rs2,300 respectively.

Apart from currency dealers, these bundles are also being sold on roadside stalls in Raja Bazaar, where the stall holders have also collected old banknotes and have started selling them by making bunches of Rs1,000 currency notes.

On the occasion of Eid, families are obliged to get these notes to give Eidi, a tradition in Muslim countries in which elders gave money to children on Eidul Fitr, while shopkeepers, stall holders and sweets and bakers also happily collect them to give their customers.

As the sale of new and old currency notes reached its peak on Eidul Fitr, the citizens expressed their indignation over the hike in the cost of currency notes this year.

Muhammad Sharif said profiteers were charging Rs400 extra on a bunch of Rs10 currency notes worth Rs1,000.

“Poor families used to give a currency note of Rs10 to their children as Eidi and increasing its price is cruelty,” he said and demanded that cases should be registered against those doing so.

Faisal Malik, a currency dealer, said that bunches of new currency notes were expensive while old currency notes were cheap.

“Middle-class families can get cheap old currency notes as it is available for Rs1,300,” he said. “Since new notes have not been issued this year, their rates have increased,” he added.

The SBP issues billions of fresh currency notes on Eid every year.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2023.