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| Shoppers Warned of Widespread Circulation of Counterfeit THB1,000 Notes |
| UPDATE : 18 December 2008 |
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The Bank of Thailand has increased its back up supply of notes and cash to 300 billion baht in preparation for the upcoming New Year holidays.
It also warned the public to beware of widespread circulation of fake 1,000-baht bills after more than 12 billion baht worth of counterfeit notes have been retrieved from the market since the beginning of the year.
The Bank of Thailand said the bank has decided to stock up cash supply of 330 billion baht to accommodate an expected surge in spending during the 5-day New Year holidays.
The BoT also expects commercial banks’ combined distribution of cash for December to amount to around 180 billion baht, or more than five percent higher than last year.
It already urged all banks to make sure that all ATM booths are stocked up with enough cash during the holidays.
BoT Assistant Governor in charge of banknote issue, Nopporn Pramojaney warned the public to watch out for fake banknotes because during the first 11 months of this year, the bank has already retrieved nearly 19,000 counterfeit banknotes, worth 12.3 million baht, from circulation. This is an 80-percent increase from the same period last year.
He added that the most common fake bills the bank has found were the 1,000-baht banknotes, which represented 61 percent of all counterfeit money.
Nopporn also expects the problem to worsen in 2009 because of sluggish economic conditions.
According to Thai laws, the producer of fake banknotes, if found guilty, will face a lifetime jail term and a maximum fine of 40,000 baht, while the user of such notes will be subject to a maximum of 15 years behind bars and a maximum fine of 30,000 baht.
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