Kathmandu, September 22:

Nepal Rastra Bank has initiated both buying and selling of five more foreign currencies through commercial banks from tomorrow to put an end to currency exchange losses or hazards during the exchange process and minimise currency holding.

NRB executive director Ramjee Regmi said, “We want to minimize losses and manage the system so that currencies can be exchanged in the Nepali market and the people staying abroad do not have to face hazards regarding the exchange process.”

Regmi clarified, “This facility is being provided to those commercial banks which can afford the particular currency but if the money exchange too wants to get the facility, we can have talks about it and work things out.” From tomorrow, five more currencies — Saudi riyal, Qatari riyal, Thai baht, United Arab Emirates dirham and Malaysian ringit — can be sold or bought in the open market. NRB said that if the flow of three other currencies — Swedish kroner, Danish kroner and Honkong dollar — also increases then the number of currencies bought and sold would rise to 18.

“As we do not have stock of these three currencies at the moment, we cannot allot the selling rate for them,” said Regmi adding, “We have already informed about five more currencies to be bought and sold in the Nepali market.”

According to NRB, twice a week the dollar and other currencies are sent by air cargo to Honkong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in Singapore. At HSBC, except Indian currency, all other currencies are sent by air cargo.

Regmi said that in view of the increasing number of students going to China for higher studies, NRB has allowed the sale and purchase of Chinese yuan for students though earlier this facility was limited to some certain people.