An estimated 7 billion in fake rupiah in circulation

BANDUNG (JP): The estimated amount of fake rupiah banknotes circulating across the country has already reached more than Rp 7.057 billion, Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Aulia Pohan said.

Instead of explaining whether or not the amount has already reached the alarming level, Pohan said that the figure represented about 0.00012 percent of the total banknotes in circulation amounting to Rp 57.2 trillion,

The figure was taken from the available records up until May this year, Pohan said here at a handover ceremony in the Bank Indonesia branch office in Bandung on Wednesday.

Abdul Salam was replaced by Maskan Iskandar as the head of the Bank Indonesia branch office in Bandung.

Iskandar was the manager of Human Resources Development at the central bank in Jakarta, while Salam is now in charge of supervision at Bank Prekreditan Rakyat in Jakarta.

"This figure is the cumulative value of the total of 157,658 fake notes in the circulation," he said, adding that the central bank had been working hard to take preventive steps to curb counterfeiting of the rupiah.

The circulation of fake banknotes has shaken the country. A retired Army officer Soemarjono, who is dubbed as the alleged main suspect in the business, has been under Surabaya police detention since May.

Soemarjono, the manager of the Indonesian Thomas Cup (badminton) team this year in Kuala Lumpur, denies his role in the business, however.

Police have confiscated sheets of paper containing a large number of uncut fake Rp 50,000 notes totaling Rp 4.7 billion. Paraphernalia believed to have been used to produce the counterfeit notes was also confiscated. The "factory" of the fake money was located in Cakung, East Jakarta.

The Bandung branch office of Bank Indonesia has "grounded" five of its staffers for circulating fake notes.

"We are waiting for the court verdict. If they are found guilty, we will sack them," the outgoing head Abdul Salam said.

Pohan said that the replacement of Abdul Salam had nothing to do with the circulation of the fake notes. (25/sur)