Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 4 / Trend N. Ismayilova /
The Azerbaijani Central Bank (CB) has received additional income to the amount of 10 million manat from the national currency denomination [full transition to a new scale of prices was in 2007], chairman of the CE board, Elman Rustamov, said.
1.05 billon manat had been in circulation, put into circulation over 13 years, but so far banknotes to the amount of 1.04 billion manat have been removed from circulation and 10 million manat has not been returned, Rustamov said.
According to Rustamov, the difference between the money in circulation and the old banknotes, which have not returned after being removed, gives a profit to the government. Money in circulation, if not returned, is considered to be a source of income.
So far, most of the 10 million manat are small bills and their return is unlikely, Rustamov added.
Rustamov still assumes part of this money will be returned, but it cannot exceed 9 million manat.
At present, banknotes worth 1,023 billion manat have been counted one by one and submitted to the State Commission, headed by First Vice-Prime Minister Yagub Eyyubov, Rustamov said.
"We have acquired modern German equipment for counting money and all the banknotes are going to be destroyed. 1.0386 billion manat will be burnt by late 2009 or by late Feb, 2010," Rustamov added.
As a result of the denomination, held by the CB, the old currency was completely replaced by the new one before Dec. 31, 2006. In Azerbaijan, the new banknotes have been used as the only mean of payment since 2007, which helped prevent possible difficulties for commercial and economic facilities in connection with the circulation of 19 denominations at the same time.
The order for the new money amounted to 1.7 billion manta, looking at the stocks for three years. 94 percent of the total amount are banknotes (1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 manat) and six percent are metal coins (1, 3 , 5, 10, 20 and 50 gapik).
The service-life of the banknotes is 3-5 years and for coins it is 20 years. At present, a great burden falls on the one and five manat banknotes, so their service life is 1.5 - 2 years, so they are not ruined. Due to this, the CB even considered the possibility of replacing them with metal money, which will be more stable, reducing the burden on them and reducing expenditures.
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