Pyithu Hluttaw has accepted a proposal to discuss about printing new banknotes with portraits of Bogyoke Aung San to replace the current notes with image of lion and elephant once these become worn out.
The proposal was presented on October 26 by U Aung Khin Win, MP from Myaing Township of Magwe Region. It was seconded by U Kan Myint, MP from nearby Thayet township also in Magwe.
“If the [current] notes are damaged and substituted as their numbers decreased, or there’s a security upgrade or if they were to be printed in new sizes, those notes should be printed with portraits of Bogyoke Aung San like before,” U Aung Khin Win told the Hluttaw.
He, however, qualified that only the damaged notes should be replaced as the cost of total replacement could reach between K100 billion and K300 billion.
This replacement of notes was first brought to the Pyithu Hluttaw on June 13 last year by U Kan Myint, but the proposal was deferred since the government’s finances was not stable at that time.
The current proponent U Aung Khin Win, assured that there should not be any worries about the instability of the currency.
“In the future, when the banknotes with Bogyoke’s portraits are printed, people will certainly keep these notes and use the old notes first,” he said.
“The citizens will surely want to use the notes with Bogyoke’s portraits instead of the old ones printed with animals,” U Aung Khin Win added.
U Kan Myint observed that banknotes in foreign countries have portraits of their monarchs’ heads, leaders, or notable citizens.
“Whenever I think of putting notes with image of animals into my pocket, I feel deeply saddened, and it’s shameful,” he said.
There are a total of 1353 million paper notes in circulation in Myanmar, according to U Soe Min, then deputy governor of the Central Bank, said last year but he did not specify the amount of money.
The current K5000 notes circulating in the country were printed in 2009, while the K10,000 were printed in 2012
Replacements for damaged notes K200, K500 and K1000 were done in 2015, while printing of new K5000 and K10,000 with security upgrade was carried out in 2015.
Source : mmtimes
