Unlike India, Pakistan won't demonetise higher currency notes: Finance Minister

Pakistan, unlike India, will not demonetise Rs 5,000 notes or withdraw Rs 40,000 prize bonds, with Finance Minister rebuffing media reports, saying "these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration".

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar yesterday said made it clear that the government was not considering demonetisation of Rs 5,000 currency notes and withdrawal of Rs 40,000 prize bonds.

The minister said that these rumours are baseless and no such proposal is under consideration of the government, Dawn reported.

Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday had said the proposal to discontinue currency notes and prize bonds of the highest denomination was "under consideration", the daily said.

Khan said the proposal came from the Tax Reforms Commission before the 2016-17 budget but the final decision was postponed and a tax reforms implementation committee was asked to look into it after the budget.

Presently, prize bonds are sold and purchased against cash without recording any identification of the seller and buyer. These are also traded in the open market and remain a major source of fraud and illegal activities.

Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Osman Saifullah Khan last week submitted a resolution in the Senate to demonetise 1,000 and 5,000 rupee notes to tackle corruption, citing the example of India which has withdrew 500 and 1,000 denominations of notes.