COLOMBO, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- The Central Bank of Sri Lanka extended the deadline till March 31 next year for people to exchange defaced or mutilated currency notes, a minister said on Sunday.

State Finance Minister Eran Wickramaratne told Xinhua that the Central Bank this year had given a 90-day period till Dec. 31 to return such notes.

However, President Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday requested the Central Bank to extend the deadline till next March 31.

Wickramaratne said some people had not been communicated properly on this move, and therefore steps were taken to extend the deadline as requested by the president.

The minister said the Central Bank decided to do so to make sure that only clean notes were in circulation.

"It is important to have fresh currency notes instead of defaced or mutilated ones. It is easy for the banking authorities to keep track of currency notes in circulation. It will eventually help in curbing fraudulent activities," he said.

According to the Monetary Law Act of Sri Lanka, willful mutilation, alteration or defacement of currency notes is an offence punishable by imprisonment or fine.

Sri Lanka has currency notes in denomination of 20, 50, 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000.

The Central Bank has stopped printing the currency notes in denomination of 10 and 2,000 though some of earlier printed ones are still in circulation.