Marking the Eid-ul-Fitr, the central bank will release new notes of 5, 20, and 50 Taka in the market starting from March 19.
However, these notes will carry the signature of the resigned Governor Abdur Rauf Talukdar and the photo of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as seen on the currently circulating notes.
The new notes, which will not feature Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's image, will be issued during the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha celebrations.
This information was provided by Arif Hossain Khan, the spokesperson and executive director of Bangladesh Bank, on Wednesday.
He stated that at the moment, there is a large quantity of previously printed notes in Bangladesh Bank’s reserves. Therefore, in order to avoid waste of money, the new design notes will not be printed immediately.
Discarding the currently printed notes would lead to a significant financial loss, and the central bank does not want to incur such waste.
He further mentioned that the previously printed notes will be released for Eid-ul-Fitr, and new notes with the new design will be available in the market around April-May. It will not be possible before that.
It is to be noted that Bangladesh Bank will exchange new notes for Eid-ul-Fitr from March 19 to March 25. New notes of 5, 20, and 50 Taka will be exchanged through special arrangements at 80 branches of scheduled banks in Dhaka, as well as various offices of Bangladesh Bank, except on weekends and public holidays.
However, the same individual will not be allowed to receive new notes multiple times.
Earlier, on December 8, a decision to introduce new design notes was approved at the Bangladesh Bank Board meeting. According to the decision, the designs of the 20, 100, 500, and 1000 Taka notes will be changed, and the government is working on this.
Reliable sources from Bangladesh Bank have revealed that the new notes will not feature the image of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Instead, they will feature religious landmarks, Bengali traditions, and the "July Revolution's graffiti".