KATHMANDU, March 12: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided on six companies in the first phase for printing currency notes.
The selected companies include China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, De La Rue International Ltd, a UK-based company, Germany's Giesecke+Devrient Currency Technology, Russia's Joint Stock Company, France's Oberthur Fiduciaire SAS, and Poland's Polish Security Printing.
Revised interest rate corridor system introduced
These selected companies will be able to compete in the bidding process for each printing over the next two years.
In this period, the NRB issues a tender for printing the necessary banknotes. During this process, all six companies can participate and the tender is awarded to the one that is willing to print at the lowest cost.
Currently, the total value of circulating banknotes in the market is Rs 6.40 trillion. A thousand-rupee note is equivalent to Rs 453 billion while five hundred-rupee notes are equivalent to Rs 127 billion. There are two hundred fifty-rupee notes equivalent to Rs 81.1 million and one hundred-rupee notes worth Rs 30 billion.
Meanwhile, there are fifty-rupee notes equivalent to Rs 13.6 billion, twenty-five-rupee notes worth Rs 52.9 million and twenty-rupee notes worth Rs 7.44 billion. There are ten-rupee notes equivalent to Rs 5.59 billion, and five, two and one-rupee notes worth Rs 3.79 billion in circulation.
