| 09 November 2012 | 5 Comments
 
 

20 dinar bills that celebrate Ben Ali’s rise to power on November 7th, 1987 will no longer be accepted at the start of next year.

Tunisians can say goodbye to some familiar symbols on their existing currency. On December 31, 2012, 20 and 50 dinar bills will cease to be legal tender, and residents will have to trade them in at a Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) office to receive the new, approved bills.

Announced in February 2011, the new policy of the BCT seeks to replace these bills on which the former of regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali is commemorated. Since last November, the new bills have been introduced into circulation. The 30 dinar bill will also be removed from circulation due to inefficiency in transactions.

According to economics professor Mohsen Hassan, the new policy reflects a concern of the BCT.

“It’s not a political decision, as the Central Bank is independent from the government and politics. The main aim is to bring cash back into the system. There is 1.3 billion dinars ($800 million) held outside of the banks, and this could be a way of motivating people to keep their money in banks, rather than at home,” he said.

Explaining the implications of this problem, he said, “One effect of cash going around is the increase in the purchase of the real estate with cash, which drives up prices.”

Both Hassan and Zied Mouhli, press attaché of the BCT, agreed that they did not expect too many logistical issues with the changes.

“Citizens and residents of Tunisia with the old currency can simply go to a Central Bank office and exchange it. This is not a new policy. It was announced over a year ago and is already in action,” explained Mouhli.

“It’s not really a problem of logistics. I think the Central Bank will do a media campaign to inform people. It could affect the consumer psychologically, though, along with purchasing behaviors,” said Hassan.

For Hassan, the policy may be well intentioned, but it is misplaced.

“They should be more concerned about finding solutions to the credit problem and problems of investments, export, and the overreliance on paper currency and a transfer to electronic currency rather than scratching ‘November 7th’ off the back of bills,” he said.

Faten Ben Aissa contributed reporting


Comments (5)

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  1. pauli says:
    28 November 2012 at 19:44

    salamu eilekm,
    will it be possible to change these notes after the above date? AND ; If so , where?

    Reply
  2. Adam Savvides says:
    10 November 2012 at 13:34

    Have the Tunisian Government not got more important issues to address rather than waste
    money in changing the look of the TND bills. All this crap that ennadha are investing in is totally pointless and a waste of time. Sort our country out properly rid us of all the uncertainty surrounding the government in the first place and make the country safe once again. We’ve already dropped in the business sector because the government have made barriers to entry more complex and with our lack of natural resources (excluding olives, olive oil and dates) tourism and business is essential for our growth and increase in financial stability. So take your fingers out the till and create stability within our nation bring back the safety that we had under Ben Ali and let’s move forward because currently we are in major decline.

    Reply
  3. Greta says:
    09 November 2012 at 21:55

    This article is not very clear – will there no longer be 20, 30 and 50 DT notes or are they changing them?

    Reply
  4. Aymen L says:
    09 November 2012 at 19:34

    The real question is: what are they going to replace them with?
    Considering who are the decision makers, I hope we dont end up changing them again in a couple of years ;)

    Also how much is the process going to cost us Tunisian citizens?

    Reply
    • Kamel says:
      14 November 2012 at 06:19

      Hopefully they don’t put elmarzouki picture on it .
      Everything in life has a cost , the chaos that we’re witnessing in Tunisia is the outcome of the immaturity of the Tunisian people, because they soon surrendered the revolution to the politician who were not part of it and who are incapable of making changes into the broken system .
      the solution is to wait few more years till people realize that ennahda systems do not work then they will vote for a politician who will eventually rob them , but at least not in the name of Islam , and Who ever thinks that someone will rule tounes for the love of it is irrational because each country in this world is none but a company ran by CEO who will treat it as his inheritance and off course he will share it with his inner circle………

      Reply

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