Pokhara, September 30 :

Loose change for Rs 120 million was exchanged from the Pokhara branch of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) for this Dashain. Bank officials said that every Dashain, people want new notes for giving them as dakshina during Dashain and so they come to the bank seeking to exchange old notes for new ones.

Over 20,000 people exchanged old notes for new ones at different banks and financial institutions for this Dashain from the beginning of month of Bhadra till yesterday, acting chief of the Pokhara NRB Man Bahadur Bhujel said.

According to Bhujel, new notes of Rs 5 denomination totalling Rs 87, 85,000, Rs 10 denomination totalling Rs 70,00,000, Rs 50 denomination notes totalling Rs 10 million and Rs 100 denomination totalling Rs 80 million were exchanged across the counters. The bank said Rs 20 denomination new notes could not be given to customers as the printing of these notes had been delayed.

The bank said that the demand for new notes of Rs 5 on which “Nepal Sarkar” was inscribed instead of “Shree Paanch ko Sarkar” was very high this time.