Among the short listed companies, two are from Germany and the rest are from China, Sweden, England, the Netherlands, Canada, France, Russia and Indonesia.

De La Rue Currency of England and Giesecke & Devrient GmbH of Germany have handled many printing orders for Nepali banknotes, according to NRB. “They were selected based on their technical qualification,” said a central bank official.

NRB had called for pre-qualification tenders in January. A senior NRB official said that the pre-qualified firms would be eligible to bid for printing contracts for at least two years or one round of printing of all the denominations of Nepali banknotes.

The central bank currently prints banknotes of Rs 5, Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50, Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations. The NRB official said that normally a firm quoting the lowest amount would be awarded the contract.

The central bank has planned to award the contract for printing Rs 100 notes during this fiscal year. It usually plans to keep stocks of paper currency for a period of three years and three months.

Company                                                                           Country

China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation    China

Giesecke & Devrient GmbH                                           Germany

Bundes Druckerei GmbH                                               Germany

CRANE AB, SE-147 82                                                    Sweden

De La Rue Currency                                                        England

Joh Enschede Banknote Bv                                           The Netherlands

Canadian Bank Note Co Ltd                                          Canada

Oberthur Fiduciaire, Siege social 7                              France

Federal State Unitary Enterprise                                   Russia

Perum Peruri                                                                     Indonesia