00:00Counterfeit with the new money and over and over it has not stopped.
00:06Businessman Gharia Bhoud is raising concerns over the circulation of counterfeit $100 bills in the market.
00:12This is new counterfeit money that I got yesterday.
00:16If you look at the two bills, you can see this is the legitimate bill.
00:21Now the infrared shows up the green of the watermark.
00:26Look at the counterfeit. It does not have the green watermark.
00:30So the color is slightly darker.
00:35The $100 doesn't show through this mark here.
00:37Look at it here. The $100 throws through in the watermark.
00:41His concerns come as the government has instructed the central bank to halt printing of the new $100 polymer bill,
00:48which was to feature the redesigned coat of arms with the steel pan in place of Columbus's ships.
00:54Our new government have said that they're halting the new bills with the new idea of changing the coat of arms.
01:02Okay, we support that. We support that.
01:08But put other features in that stop people from stealing from our poor.
01:13For a man who's only getting a couple of hundred dollars a week, and the bank doesn't take it, might lose 30% of his earnings.
01:22Meantime, coordinator of the Confederation of Regional Business Chambers, Jai Lillard-Harsingh, is echoing Abood's call,
01:30though he admits that his membership has not reported any increase in the circulation of counterfeit notes.
01:36Usually, the banks have to hold those counterfeit notes and call the police and give it to them.
01:43And then, of course, the police conducts their investigation thereafter.
01:47What is interesting is that the polymer notes were created and replaced the coat notes,
01:51because that was put in place to mitigate and, as much as possible, prevent counterfeit.
01:58So, we in the Confederation are a bit surprised to see that the counterfeiters have found a way to imitate these notes.
02:07It's quite disturbing.
02:09The government has not disclosed a reason for the decision to stop the printing of the notes.
02:14On behalf of the business community, I would like the government to level with the population,
02:21the business community and all other important stakeholders what's really happening with the hundred-dollar notes.
02:26It appears, too, also there's a little matter of the coat of arms.
02:31Not that the coat of arms, we changed the coat of arms, but maybe they are detecting the counterfeit
02:36because of how the coat of arms is designed, maybe by the counterfeiters, that people are picking it up.
02:43I'm making an assumption here.
02:45And if that is the case, they may have to do some reprinting in order to mitigate that.
02:51How it is done, I cannot give the methodology, but what I can tell you is that this must be addressed immediately
03:00because this could cause further losses in business.
03:03Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
03:06Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
03:21Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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