LUMBINI: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has agreed to provide an exchange facility for non-convertible foreign banknotes worth almost Rs 117 million offered by pilgrims at the Mayadevi Temple and other religious sites in Lumbini.
The Lumbini Development Trust (LDT) had been requesting the central bank for an exchange facility for such banknotes for a long time. As these banknotes cannot be exchanged in Nepal, they had been lying idle with the LDT since as early as 2013/14.
Dhundiraj Bhattarai, treasurer of the LDT, said that the NRB has finally agreed to provide an exchange facility for such non-convertible banknotes. “We had requested NRB Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari for the exchange facility during his visit to Lumbini some time ago. Now, the central bank has agreed in principle to provide the exchange facility,” Bhattarai added.
The LDT is preparing to send non-convertible banknotes from 39 countries to the central bank within a week. These banknotes are from countries like Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Iraq, Brunei, Lebanon, Peru and Uganda, and most of them are from Myanmar.
Jiban Prakash Pandey, deputy director at NRB’s Siddharthanagar office, said that the central bank is providing an exchange facility for non-convertible foreign banknotes. According to Pandey, the banknotes will be sent to a Singapore-based bank for exchange via NRB’s head office.
