Think you can doodle funny facial hair onto the images of Indonesian heroes and heroines on our banknotes and get away with it? Think again.
Vandalized bank notes have apparently become such a problem that Bank of Indonesia (BI) recently saw the need to remind people that it’s actually against the law.
“Those who deliberately damage, cut, or destroy money can be charged with violating Law No 7 in 2011 on Currency, which is punishable by law,” said Suhaedi, head of BI’s Money Management Department, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
This isn’t a matter to be taken lightly either – those convicted of vandalizing money can be charged with a maximum 5 years jail sentence and a maximum fine of Rp 1 billion.
It’s as severe a punishment as those generally dished out to graft convicts (and one could argue that their crime is far, far worse than a harmless doodle on a bank note).
To be fair though, one might argue that this harsh punishment is justifiable because BI reportedly had to destroy almost 6 billion unusable bank notes worth an incredible Rp 160.23 trillion last year alone.
