Ten Thousand Rupee Notes Issued By China For Use At Port City? Here’s The Truth…

Port City Colombo project had been a much talked topic during 2021. Alongside the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Li’s visit to Sri Lanka we noticed a number of posts related to Port City once again.

Among them was a peculiar post claiming that a new 10,000 rupee note was officially introduced by the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister. However, our investigation revealed that this was yet another hoax.

Social Media Posts:

A Twitter user commented that the Chinese Foreign Minister officially handed over the new currency of 10,000 notes to the Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister for payments within Sri Lanka and Colombo Port City & Hambantota as seen below.

Twitter | Archived

This message was shared on Facebook also as seen below.

Facebook | Archived Link

This post went on to add that Tamil has been replaced by Chinese in this new 10,000 note as well.

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FACT CHECK: Is Tamil language replaced by Chinese from public signboards in Sri Lanka? Here’s the truth…

Fact Check

First we checked news on the Chinese Foreign Minister’s visit and it was reported that he arrived in Sri Lanka on 8^th January for a two-day visit and was welcomed by Minister Namal Rajapaksa. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, was expected to meet the top leadership of Sri Lanka marking the 65th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between the two nations as well and at the same time was scheduled to visit the Port City.

The opening of the Marina Promenade at the Port City was announced during a ceremony graced by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. However, we didn’t notice any news related to handing over a new currency during this event.

We contacted the head of public relations at the Port City project to get more insights on the 10,000 note claim. He explained that as per the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Act passed in May 2021, there will be provision to carry out business transactions in designated foreign currencies in future apart from Sri Lankan rupee at the Port City. However, he added that all monetary laws and acts applicable to Sri Lanka would be applicable to Port City as well and there wouldn’t be any provision to use currencies other than the designated foreign currencies such as USD, GBP, EUR, JPY, CNY etc. under the supervision of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

We contacted the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka also to get his views on the 10,000 note as there had been claims of such notes being printed in last December as well. The Deputy Governor explained that at the moment there is no immediate plan to issue a 10,000 rupee value note to circulation in Sri Lanka. Note Series - CBSL has Rs.5000 as the highest value note in circulation at the moment.

Also it’s clear that the edited version of the fake 10,000 note has been created using the 5000 Rupee note, currently in Sri Lanka. The serial numbers of this 5000 note matches with the altered 10,000 note used in the social media posts as well.

This is not the first time that a Sri Lankan currency had been digitally manipulated to imply that a 10,000 rupee note was issued with links to China. Here is one of such fact checks from 2021 in Tamil, for a fake 10,000 note.

Conclusion

From our investigation it’s clear that a new 10,000 rupee note has not been introduced by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka yet. The image of 10,000 note is an edited version using the 5000 note currently in circulation in Sri Lanka

Also head of public relations at the Port City project confirms that only designated foreign currencies would be permissible to carry out transactions at the Port City premises in future apart from the Sri Lankan rupee transactions.