CB asked to make currency notes trilingual

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has agreed to the Human Rights Council request to use all three national languages in currency notes.

The issue was taken up by the Human Rights Council as the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) filed a petition pointing out that the Central Bank has not used the Tamil language in an important statement in currency notes.

CPA pointed out that the currency notes lacked the Tamil translation of the statement ‘This note is valid for all transactions within Sri Lanka’.

The Central Bank agreed to include the Tamil translation of the statement in the currency notes from the next print.

The Tamil language is the second major language in Sri Lanka spoken mainly by the Tamil and Muslim communities. Sri Lanka’s Constitution guarantees equal rights to all three languages.