New notes without Sheik Mujib’s portrait to be available in May

The central bank is set to release new notes excluding the image of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman towards the end of April or in early May, Bangladesh Bank Executive Director Arif Hossain Khan told reporters on Wednesday.

The new notes will be available before Eid-ul-Adha in June. The government is working to remove potentially all links with the ousted Awami League regime, in a bid to leave behind the autocratic legacy.

The government is on track to release new notes worth Tk5, Tk20 and Tk50 on 19 March ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival. The notes would contain the image of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as they were printed before authorities decided to remove the image in new notes.

Reprinting the notes by excluding Sheikh Mujib’s image would result in the wastage of huge amount of public money and given the present shaky situation of the national economy, the central bank wants to avoid such wastage, Arif Hossain Khan said.