Yangon, Myanmar: The government has officially opened money exchangers in Myanmar. Money changers outlets can be found in Yangon and some major cities of Myanmar about 3 months ago. However, it has been reported that there are still some restrictions in exchanging foreign currencies. In spite of the announcement by government which states that every citizen can exchange up to 10,000 US Dollar in every authorized exchange outlets, the actual amount they are currently buying is still 300 US dollar per person, confirmed by tourists and local travel guides.
Due to their reports, the main problem is that official money exchanger outlets in Myanmar do not buy US Dollars which are wrinkled, have ink stains and they also do not buy the old notes, many travel guides reported. “Even though they only buy about 200 US dollar which is extremely lower than the announced amount, they do not accept notes with any single defect, especially in cities which do not have many money exchange outlets such as those fromShanState,” one of the travel guides said.
Another travel guide reported that “When I arrived at Heho Airport, I went to exchange 500 US Dollars but I could only change $200. Their excuse was that the notes were wrinkled.” Currently, the exchange rate provided by official outlets is usually higher than black markets. Even though the authorized outlets do not accept US dollar which have the above stated defects, black market is buying those without any complaint.
A tourist from Australia, Mr. Davy told that “I do not understand why. If on the black market someone can buy US dollars why the official outlet cannot do so. I went to sell 1,000 US dollar at one outlet in Mandalay but they only bought $700, as they said the remaining had needle holes in it which I think is a really strange reason. So I needed to sell them at the black market.” He is also confused with the trades. “One thing I don’t know is where the black market resells the notes that government authorized exchange outlets cannot buy. Where do those notes go? Black markets are giving 40 or 50 Kyats lower rate for every 100 US dollar. There will definitely be some illegal issues between citizens, official outlets and black markets.”
On the other hand, one of the staff working in an authorized outlet by one of the private banks explained that they cannot accept US dollar with defects because they need to sell it again to Government Central Bank. “As Government Central Bank does not accept those notes, we cannot accept it too.” He said. Currently there are more than 50 official money exchangers in Myanmar and they are buying US Dollars after checking the notes one by one.
