2017-01-06 Fri

Pakistan officially passed a resolution to stop circulating Rs 5,000 currency notes for controlling money laundering. Some officials have stated that Rs 5000 note was being used in illegal transactions. The issue was tabled in the parliament with different parties reacting differently to the proposal.

Supporting parties believe that this step will encourage the use of bank accounts and reduce undocumented money. Some officials who opposed this idea said that about 3.43 trillion Rs 5,000 banknotes were in circulation and almost 30 percent of the total currency in circulation is made of high denomination notes. This might lead to monetary crisis and people would lose confidence in Pakistani rupee. Supporters reacted by saying that the notes shouldn’t be removed at once but printing should be halted and withdrawal should happen within 5 years.