RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday that as of now, close to 50 per cent of the Rs 2,000 denomination notes that were in circulation have come back to the banking system.
On May 19 this year, the Reserve Bank of India announced that it was withdrawing Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes from the system. People having these notes could either exchange them in banks or just deposit the notes in their bank accounts till September 30, it had said.
"We had said that as on March 31 this year, totally Rs 3.62 lakh crore (worth) Rs 2,000 notes were in circulation. After the announcement that we made, totally so far, about Rs 1.80 lakh crore (worth) of Rs 2,000 notes have come back. This is roughly about 50 per cent of Rs 2,000 notes which were in circulation on March 31," Das told reporters in a briefing post the monetary policy announcement.
Out of the total Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes that have come back into the system, on a provisional basis, about 85 per cent of them are coming back as deposits into bank accounts, he further added.
The Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes were introduced post demonetisation in November 2016 when Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes were withdrawn as legal tender.
Last month, RBI said it was withdrawing Rs 2,000 currency notes as a part of its "clean note policy" and it also observed that this denomination was not commonly used for transactions. Printing of the said notes was stopped back in 2018-19 once banknotes in other denominations became available in adequate quantities.
People can exchange or deposit these notes in bank accounts till September 30. Governor Das appealed to people that they could do such exchange or deposit at their convenience and there was no need to rush or panic as there was enough currency in stock in the system. But, he also advised them to avoid a last minute rush during the last few days of September.
Das also told reporters that RBI had no plan to withdraw Rs 500 denomination notes or re-introduce Rs 1,000 currency notes. He also urged people to not speculate on this.
