The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stopped printing Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes, revealed an RTI response. According to a report by the New Indian Express, the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran has not printed a single note of Rs 2,000 this financial year.
According to the RBI's RTI reply, 3,542.991 million notes of Rs 2,000 were printed during the financial year 2016-17. However, the year 2017-18 saw a substantial reduction in printing and only 111.507 million notes were produced, which was further reduced to 46.690 million notes in the year 2018-19. This means that while the notes would still be in usage and circulation, it will be eventually phased out. While there would be fewer Rs 2,000 notes in circulation, the RBI would be keen to maintain the value of total circulation to avert cash crunch issues that may arise.
Earlier this year, a top RBI had said that the central government reduced the printing of the notes to "bare minimum" in an attempt to curb money laundering. "The printing of 2,000 rupee notes has been substantially reduced. It has been decided to limit the printing of 2,000 currency notes to minimum. This is nothing new," the official said. The new RTI report concurs the official's statement.
The move is seen as an attempt to prevent hoarding of the high-value currency and thus, curb black money. The Rs 2,000 notes were introduced in November 2016, soon after the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre decided to withdraw Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in an attempt to curb black money and fake currencies. However, economists had then warned the government that the high-value currency would defeat the purpose of restricting black money generation.
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Despite demonetisation, various raids across the country over the past months have uncovered huge amounts of unaccounted cash during different occassions.
This is not the first time that reports have surfaced saying the government has stopped printing of Rs 2,000 notes. However, the Centre and the RBI had denied the reports, time and again. "Printing of notes is planned as per the projected requirement. We have more than adequate notes of Rs 2000 in the system with over 35% of notes by value in circulation being of Rs 2000. There has been no decision regarding 2000 rupee note production recently," Subhash Chandra Garg, who was then the Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs in the ministry of finance had tweeted earlier this year.
