Nepal saves millions by printing banknotes in China

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank of the Himalayan nation, has received to store 24 million 1000-rupee currency notes printed and delivered by the China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPM).

Before their storage, Bhuban Kadel, executive director of the Nepalese central bank, who oversees the currency management department, had checked the notes. He was utterly impressed by the quality of the notes, particularly considering the cost was far lower than the bank had previously paid to another printer.

"The quality is as good as the ones that were printed earlier in another country but the cost is less than half of the amount we had earlier paid," Kadel told Xinhua.

Getting 200 million notes printed in China saved the Nepalese central bank 3.76 million U.S. dollars, according to Kadel.

Timely delivery of these notes was important for the central bank to provide grant aid to earthquake victims as promised by the Nepalese government.

After finding that the notes available were insufficient to meet the requirements for providing the grants to the quake victims, the central bank had ordered printing the 1,000 rupee notes without revising the specifics, which were earlier planned to be changed.

"The second and third consignments under the first batch have also arrived in Kolkata, India from where we will take delivery next week of one of the consignments," said Kadel.

The NRB will take delivery of all 1,000 rupee notes in three batches. Under the first lot, 84 million notes have been delivered.

The Chinese state-owned company had won the tender last August to print 1,000-rupee notes which is the largest denominated currency notes in Nepal.

The same Chinese company had earlier printed Nepal's 100-rupee notes as well,which were delivered in June 2016. It was the first time that any Chinese company was involved in printing Nepal's currency notes.

Nepal had earlier been getting its notes printed by Indonesian, French and Australian companies, among others.

According to the Nepalese central bank, the same Chinese company also signed the contract to print 260 million 5-rupee notes recently at a lower cost than the previously paid for.

"Thanks to China, we have saved million of rupees from printing in other countries," said Chintamani Siwakoti, deputy governor of the Nepalese central bank. Endit