Shamshad Akhtar, the caretaker finance minister, has reiterated that the government does not intend to remove the Rs. 5,000 note from circulation.
The finance minister stated in a Saturday night interview that implementing changes that would promote investment was the best way to address Pakistan’s economic issues.
“Demonetisation is no solution,” Akhtar flatly told the interview.
She went on to say that the government had requested the introduction of the Rs. 5,000 note during her tenure as governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, and she still thought it was a positive move.
The finance minister stated that it would be far riskier to handle the paperwork involved in printing and managing smaller amounts of money if the Rs 5,000 note was divided into smaller denominations.
“We give our public options to actually invest in lucrative products, which is the most important thing,” she stated. She added that new schemes would have to be brought in and the stock exchange would have to be improved
Akhtar added that the government would have to ‘kill’ the black economy which was promoted due to wrong practices. One important thing she mentioned to control the black economy was digitization.
According to her, Islamic banks do not provide “effective” returns, but mainstream banks do provide respectable returns. She claimed that even though the SBP was in charge of it, she had personally contacted Islamic banks to find a solution because Pakistan had pledged to Islamize its banking sector.
In Pakistan, rumours that the Rs. 5,000 note has been removed from circulation are common. The note was allegedly going to be prohibited on September 30th, but caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi had to explain this in September of this year.
