Friday, August 19, 2011

Rupee coin will be the smallest unit

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday approved the Pakistan Coinage Amendment Bill 2010 which replaces the paisa denominated coins with one rupee coin as the smallest unit. The approval brings to an end 105 years old system of calculating currency on paisa.



The state Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would exchange within six months Rs600 million worth paisa coins. One per cent of these coins would be preserved with SBP and in museums, the committee was informed. A committee chaired by Fouzia Wahab was told by Finance Secretary Waqar Masood that the decimal coins were no more relevant and have become out dated. He said that the coins of denominations of 1 rupee, 50 paisa, 25 paisa, 10 paisa etc were in circulation since 1906. SBP Deputy Governor Kamran Shahzad told the committee that on January 1, 1961, Pakistan introduced decimal Coinage System by launching coins of denominations of 10, 5, and 1 paisas and decimal coins of higher denominations of 50 and 25 paisas were put into circulation subsequently.