NRB likely to blacklist Indonesian note printer

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is planning to blacklist Indonesian note printing company Perum Peruri, citing a serious lacking on the part of the security printing company. The NRB made the move after it found that some units of unauthorized Rs 1,000 notes had sneaked into the market.

The central bank´s board meeting on Thursday also reassigned the probe team, which was formed last week to investigate on the case, to conduct an in-depth investigation on how the notes supposed to be destroyed by the company found their way into the market.

The team will soon visit the company to verify the stock and investigate the process of destroying the notes that are not endorsed by the central bank. The main task of the team is to verify whether the number of notes that sneaked into the market crossed over its estimation put at 1,008 units.

“This is a serious lapse of the company and the central bank is likely to postpone a new printing order. A decision to this connection will be taken in a few weeks,” said a source, adding that the decision to this effect is most likely to be taken in the upcoming board meeting planned for Sunday. And if the central bank decides to blacklist the company, it will never be allowed to bid for NRB´s note printing tenders.

The saga of circulation of unauthorized notes had surfaced two weeks ago when NRB found some notes from the market. The unauthorized notes bear the signature of present Governor Bijaya Nath Bhattarai, but those were printed before his suspension from the post in June 2007 on corruption charges.

Perum Peruri then had sent at least six sets of samples for final approval. But before the notes were delivered, Bhattarai was suspended from the post. The government later authorized the central bank to issue notes carrying signature of then acting governor Krishna Bahadur Manadhar in order to avoid scarcity of notes.

Since the notes were never approved for distribution, Perum Peruri was required to destroy them and deliver the alternative notes signed by Manandhar. But NRB recovered a 1000-rupee note with prefix of 55 and having Bhattarai´s signature instead of Manandhar´s from the market.

NRB had formed a high-level team led by Bhola Man Shrestha, executive director of the NRB, to probe into the case, as it termed the issue ´highly sensitive´ even though the volume of unauthorized notes is not huge.
Source: Republica