The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will change the designs of all currency notes before the start of next year, and also introduce at least one plastic note as an experiment, central bank Governor Jameel Ahmad said on Wednesday.

Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, the SBP chief said that the new-design notes will be introduced in December this year after approval from the federal cabinet. He did not say what would be the value of the plastic note.

The country currently has seven currency notes of Rs10, Rs20, Rs50, Rs100, Rs500, Rs1,000 and Rs5,000 denominations. “The central bank has decided to replace all currency notes from Rs10 to Rs5,000 with new-design currency notes,” Ahmad told the committee.

“By December, all currencies will be introduced according to the new design. The federal cabinet will soon approve the introduction of the new currency design,” he added. Instead of paper currency, one plastic note will also be introduced.”

Committee member Mohsin Aziz suggested demonetising the Rs5,000 note, saying that it was causing corruption and other problems. He added that he would also raise this issue in parliament. Ahmed replied that there was no proposal under consideration to demonetise the Rs5,000 note.

“There have been proposals in this regard before, but this proposal was not accepted. That is why the new-design notes that we are going to introduce now will also include the Rs5,000 note,” Ahmad said.