KARACHI: After receiving overwhelming response on Eid occasions in 2015, the State Bank of Pakistan, through its subsidiary SBP Banking Services Corporation has re-launched the SMS service for issuance of fresh currency notes to the general public.

The fresh notes will be available from nominated commercial bank branches called “e-branches” and the sixteen offices of SBP BSC. The issuance to the general public through Mobile SMS service by designated e-branches of commercial banks will commence from 2nd of Ramzan till 28th Ramzan. The service will be provided through 500 e-branches in 116 cities during Ramzan, 2016. Necessary stock of fresh banknotes has already been placed with the designated e-branches. The charges for this services are Rs. 2/- plus tax, per SMS. 

Under the service, a person will send SMS message to short code 8877 comprising his/her 13 digit CNIC/Smart Card number along with the desired e-branch ID [e.g. 3830305939875(space)KHI005]. Branch IDs of nominated branches are available onsbp.org.pk, pakistanbanks.org and commercial banks’ websites.

In return, the person will receive an SMS containing his/her redemption code, e-branch address and redemption code validity date. The redemption code will be valid for two working days. Customer should then approach the concerned e-branch along with his/her original CNIC/Smart Card, its photocopy and the redemption code received from 8877 to obtain fresh notes.

It may be noted that the quota of fresh notes to be issued to each person comprises of two packets of Rs.10 and one packet of Rs.20. He/she may also avail one packet each of Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 as per availability of stock with the concerned e-branch.

Under the SMS service, each CNIC/Smart card number and mobile phone number can only be used once. No transaction code will be issued to the sender in case he/she sends the same CNIC/Smart card number from different mobile numbers or sends different CNIC/Smart card numbers from same mobile number during the service.

This will however result in additional cost to the sender. In order to facilitate the general public for their queries/complaints, SBP-BSC has established a help desk at 111-008-877 that can be accessed through NWD code of 042 for Punjab; 021 for Sindh and Balochistan and 051 for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Helpdesk facility will only be available during office hours.