‘Fuelling economy’ through shredded currency notes

Mohammad Saleem 

FAISALABAD: Currency notes put to shredder by the State Bank of Pakistan are being used in factories to ignite fire at boilers in the absence of alternative means of energy.

Earlier, notes were being burnt by the SBP, however, the government had banned the practice because of environmental hazards.

The banknotes auctioned by the SBP are of Rs10 to Rs5,000 denominations of even serial issued in 2010.

A factory worker, Tariq Mehmood, said his employers were fed up with spending extra money on the corncob and wood to energise the boilers.

“Searching for the corncob and wood is a daunting task, because of this we have purchased currency notes,” he added.

According to Mehmood, currency notes catch fire instantly as compared to corncob, wood, paper and other means. “However, we are facing breathing problems as its ash emits a pungent smell,” he said.

“We don’t know how and from where our employer has purchased all notes,” Mehmood said, adding a vehicle loaded with a number of sacks carrying shredded currency notes had been sent here.

He said the owner still had hundreds of kilograms of such notes to be used in coming days.

Recycling or reutilisation of such currency notes was not possible that’s why the bank was selling them, he argued.

An officer of the SBP told Dawn requesting anonymity that the bank used to burn the waste of currency notes with its internal arrangements in the past. The bank had to stop the practice because smoke and ash had been polluting the city environment.

“Now the bank is auctioning the waste of currency notes and millers are purchasing it because paper of the notes catches fire immediately.

“It is worrisome if notes are being burnt in factories of city areas,” the officer said.

He said bank had been auctioning the worn-out currency notes.

This reporter saw a number of fresh notes of even 2010 serial which were also auctioned by the SBP.

When contacted, SBP currency department representative in Faisalabad, Quratul Ain, declined to comment saying it was a confidential issue.

Industrialists have been trying to find cheap methods to keep their machinery active as gas supply to the industry has been suspended a couple of days ago. And they have found an alternative source of energy in shredded notes.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2015