LAHORE: Demand for new currency notes throughput the country has increased as trend to use currency notes of various denominations is increasing days by day.
Many traders are using this opportunity to make profits while fake currency notes, especially of Rs 100 and Rs 10 are circulating in the markets.
During last few days of Ramazan, residents of Lahore thronged local banks in search of new notes. Others approached currency vendors at pavements in Anarkali and State Bank of Pakistan.
Currency notes of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100 are available in these markets but they are selling these notes on extra rate. A packet of Rs 10 is available in Rs 1100, Rs 20 at the rate of Rs 2200 and Ra 100 in Rs 10200.
A long quos of people is also witnessed by Customs Today at State bank of Pakistan Lahore. A buyer, Ahmed, said new notes are an Eid tradition and people loved receiving them. “I am an account holder at a private bank and I asked the bank manager for new notes, but he said he has run out,” he said.
According to sources in the currency market, each packet contains 100 notes and profit charged on a packet of notes is currently around 10 percent.
However, prices are expected to rise one day before Eid as purchase of new notes peaks on the night before Eid. This year, the State Bank of Pakistan introduced an SMS service for facilitating people in acquiring new notes ahead of Eid.
