Cabinet clearance sought for new currency notes, Senate committee told

The State Bank of Pakistan has finalised the design of new currency notes incorporating enhanced security features and has forwarded them to the federal cabinet for approval, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue was told on Wednesday.

SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad informed the committee that the redesigned banknotes had been vetted by the SBP Board and were intended to curb counterfeiting. He said the central bank would proceed with printing once cabinet approval was granted.

The briefing was given during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwala, which also reviewed issues relating to senior appointments in regulatory bodies, financial privacy, budgetary allocations and the Public Sector Development Programme of the Ministry of Finance.

The committee chairman welcomed the development and recalled that the panel had long urged the authorities to modernise currency notes and strengthen their security features.

SBP officials have previously stated that after cabinet clearance, the central bank would start printing new-design notes of two to three denominations simultaneously. The notes would be introduced into circulation in phases once minimum stock levels were achieved.

Separately, addressing a press conference after the first Monetary Policy Committee meeting of 2026, Governor Ahmad said the new notes would gradually replace those currently in circulation. He, however, declined to disclose which denominations would be issued first.

Currently, banknotes in circulation include denominations of Rs10, Rs20, Rs50, Rs75, Rs100, Rs500, Rs1,000 and Rs5,000.

At the same press conference, the SBP governor announced that the central bank had decided to keep its benchmark policy rate unchanged at 10.5 percent.

“We have sent the new designs to the government, which has placed them before the cabinet for approval,” Ahmad said, adding that printing would commence following formal clearance.