Staff Correspondent

The currency notes in a new design without Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s image are expected to hit the market at the end of April or early May.

These new notes will bear the signature of the current Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur, according to the bank’s spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan.

On Wednesday, he told bdnews24.com that the central bank would release the new notes with the previous design on Mar 19 on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. These notes will contain Bangabandhu’s image and the signature of former governor Abdur Rouf Talukder.

“And when the Bangladesh Bank will release the notes with a new design, the image of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the signature of former governor Abdur Rouf Talukder will be removed. The new notes will hold the current governor’s signature."

Explaining the reason for this, Arif said a large amount of notes printed in the previous design still remain in the central bank.

"So new design notes are not being printed at the moment to prevent wastage of money."
Bangladesh Bank will exchange new notes on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr from Mar 19 to 25.

The new notes of Tk 5, Tk 20, and Tk 50 will be exchanged in a special measure through 80 branches of different scheduled banks in Dhaka and the central bank offices on working days. However, the same person cannot collect new notes more than once.

The new notes can be collected from 80 branches of different banks in Dhaka, Savar, Keraniganj, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, and Gazipur, according to a statement issued by the central bank.

The Security Printing Corporation Bangladesh Limited, known as Takshal, prints banknotes. The printing press was established in 1976 but first started operations in 1988 by printing Tk 1 notes.

Tk 10 notes were printed in November of that year. Before printing any currency note, the government approves its design. Hence, it calls for tenders from artists to create the design.

Once the design is final, paper, ink and plates are prepared through international tenders. The plates are made abroad according to the design and then Takshal prints the notes.

Bank notes devoid of Bangabandhu’s image were printed in 2009. Then governor Salehuddin Ahmed is serving as the finance advisor of the current interim government. Some red-coloured Tk 500 and Tk 1,000 notes printed at that time are still found in the market.