Sittwe: Ruined notes of Burmese currency in small denominations are being used by people in Arakan State despite that the government authority announced last month that the ruined notes can be exchanged at the government economic bank.
"People in Rangoon have exchanged the ruined notes for new small notes at the government bank, but we have not had the chance to change the ruined notes in Arakan. So we have to still use the ruined notes in our state," a businessman said.
The government announce last month that the public can exchange the ruined notes at the government economic banks after the BBC - Burmese section aired a report about how the ruined notes were affecting public health.
In the report aired by the BBC, many Burmese discussed the difficulties people are facing with the ruined notes, and some physicians talked about how the ruined notes are affecting peoples' health.
"We would like to request the government authority arrange it as soon as possible. We should have equal rights like people in Rangoon. We are facing big problems with the ruined notes," he said.
In Arakan State, because no new notes are being issued and people are unable to exchange the notes at government banks, people have been taking tokens issued by the local shops.
"In our area, the major shops have issued 50, 100, and 200 kyat tokens instead of Burmese currency to use easily for buying and selling in the markets in Arakan," he added.
The local authority has permitted the token system in Arakan because of the scarcity if new notes in the state, however, many problems remain with the system.
"We all want to use notes because the tokens can't be used everywhere in our town. We use it within our ward. Sometimes we are facing problems in the market due to the scarcity if currency notes," he said.
In rural areas of Arakan, people use a barter system. People exchange their property such as chickens, rice, paddy and locally-made alcohol in rural markets due to scarcity of the small notes in the state.
------------------------------------
