Govt warned on old kina notes in circulation

EAST Sepik Governor Allan Bird has cautioned the government to treat seriously the old kina notes being circulated along the border with Indonesia.
The notes were in a container shipped to Germany to be destroyed but went missing somewhere along the way.
Bird said the notes were now coming back to the country.
“These note were not marked specifically and I have reliable information that these notes are now being sold in Indonesia,” he said.
“Recently, it came to my notice that K12 million consisting of K20 notes, K50 notes and K100 notes, all brand new, all in plastic bags, all in cartons are actually on sale at a
75 per cent discount. So if anyone has K3 million, one can buy K12 million in notes in Indonesia.
“This is just one small part of the notes that were in that container.”
Bird said it was something the Government must take seriously.
“The people of East and West Sepik had been trading on the border, with at least K100 million in trading this year,” he said.
“This is because vanilla is so expensive that a kilogram is purchased at around K1200.
“But these funds are not entering our banking system because when a villager is hanging on to K300,000, under our laws on preventing money laundering, they are not allowed to deposit that cash back into our system.”