The State Bank of Pakistan is moving toward introducing a redesigned Rs5,000 note, telling a Senate committee this week that advances in printing technology have made the existing banknote easier to counterfeit.
What the SBP Told the Senate
Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, the SBP Deputy Governor said the current Rs5,000 note was introduced in 2005 and that technological advancements since then have made counterfeiting harder to control. A ministerial committee headed by the finance minister has been constituted to oversee the design of new currency notes, and the deputy governor said the government’s committee had already approved the new design, with the central bank now seeking to ensure there are no objections to it. The printing cost of a single Rs5,000 note is approximately Rs14, the committee was told.
The briefing came after Mandviwalla raised concerns over reports that bank ATMs were dispensing counterfeit Rs5,000 and Rs1,000 notes. He said the committee had handed three Rs5,000 notes to the SBP’s deputy governor roughly a year earlier for verification, and that one had turned out to be counterfeit, a discovery even the deputy governor had struggled to make. He said the central bank had neither submitted a report on the matter nor returned the notes to the committee.
Calls for a Faster Process
Senator Anusha Rahman Ahmad Khan called for the currency design approval process to be streamlined so that minor amendments do not trigger repeated referrals and delays. Mandviwalla separately directed the SBP to provide the committee with complete details of the bidding process for the new notes and expressed concern over the continued circulation of counterfeit currency through banking channels.
Part of a Broader Redesign
The SBP has said the redesign is not limited to the Rs5,000 note but spans denominations from Rs10 to Rs5,000, incorporating enhanced security features intended to be significantly harder to replicate than those on the current series, which has been in circulation since 2005. The central bank has previously said any rollout would happen in phases following cabinet approval, with old notes expected to remain valid alongside new ones for a transition period once the new series is introduced.
The SBP has separately urged the public to be wary of misinformation about the redesign circulating on social media, saying unverified claims about specific launch dates or note materials should be checked against official SBP channels.
Why It Matters
Counterfeit currency has been a persistent concern for Pakistan’s banking sector, with reports of fake notes surfacing in ATMs and general circulation in cities including Karachi in recent months. A redesigned Rs5,000 note with stronger security features is intended to address that gap, though the timeline for a full rollout has not yet been finalised.
