We don’t need a larger bank note

Jul 13, 2013 Editorial

Last year, Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon informed the media at his weekly post-Cabinet Press briefing that Guyana would soon have a $5,000 currency note. Indeed this would have been the largest denomination to appear in the country.
When rampant inflation hit Guyana in the early 1990s all of a sudden people found themselves walking around with large wads of cash. Certainly this could not augur well for the average person. He suddenly became prone to criminal attacks. There was no way he could escape attention.
Back then the largest denomination was the twenty dollar currency note. It took large sums of money to pay what would be considered a pittance these days. The government introduced the one hundred dollar note thus easing the pressure on the person conducting business. Inflation soon made the one hundred dollar note meaningless and the five hundred dollar note came into existence.
Today there is the one thousand dollar note and this testifies to the level of inflation in the society. Indeed the level has slowed. Back in 1999 when the government was ordered to pay a fifty per cent wage hike there were fears that the situation would have gotten out of hand with the currency. It did. By no stretch of imagination could the government support such a pay hike.
The workers smiled when the award was made but two years later they were no better off. They were back to petitioning the government for pay rise. The pay hike created rampant inflation so prices rose at an astronomical rate. When it was all over, the government found that it needed a larger currency note.
But even then people in certain quarters began to recognize the importance of plastic money. In the metropolis, plastic money is the order of the day. Indeed, it has its limitations.
For example, one of the rampant crimes is identity theft where people access other people’s information and put it to use for the other individual’s benefit.
But one thing was certain; people were not robbed of the sums of money that one would hear about in Guyana. Gunmen in those countries do not target homes and stores in the quest for money and jewellery because such acts would be tantamount to time wasting. Of interest is the fact that even the huge department stores that conduct millions of real dollars of business in a given day do not have that amount of currency on the premises.
The society uses debit cards but for many people these cards are intended to avoid a trek and standing in line at a commercial bank. There are commercial entities that allow for the use of these debit cards, thus negating the need for cash but from place to place the terminal differs. A place that would accept a GBTI debit card may not necessarily accept a Republic Bank debit card.
The commercial banks have been making half-baked attempts to have a unified approach to the introduction of plastic money, but we suspect that the half-hearted move is just to facilitate the huge deposits made by people who make money outside legitimate means.
We are certain that with the passage of anti-money laundering legislation, plastic money would become ubiquitous. And this then asks the authorities to explain the need for the five thousand dollar note. The larger the note the more the cash that people would carry around.
For its part the Ministry of Finance has been silent on the larger currency note and one can only hope that the idea has been shelved. Surely Guyana does not need a larger bank note. The financial planners should take a note from the United States and Great Britain and the European Union. These countries have not introduced a larger currency note in decades.
In fact, the United States is scaling down on the use of its larger currency note—the one hundred dollar note. The reason that this is possible is because there are not much cash transactions over the counter when large purchases are made. Guyana must get its route. And it must monitor transactions if only for tax purposes.

Latest News

We don’t need a larger bank note

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 7th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Allicock, Amsterdam named in GBA training squad 2025 Caribbean Boxing...

Interesting transfers, Clubs secure firepower...

North East beat Back Circle B; set up semi...

DCC executive laud Savory, Imlach for champion...

Dozens of young chess players participate in...

Shai Hope claims Green Belt and Dispatch of the...

Features/Columnists

Forward to the past

OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus

Process, procedure, political people and public servants

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

We don’t need a larger bank note

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| February, 7th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]