More than a year and a half have passed since the country banned the pink 2,000 rupee notes, but people are still holding onto these notes worth over 7,000 crore rupees. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave a major update on these notes on October first and said that 98 per cent of the total Rs 2,000 notes have been returned since they were taken out of circulation.
Still waiting for 2% note to be returned
Sharing data on returns of Rs 2,000 notes taken out of circulation, the Reserve Bank of India said on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, that 98% of the notes of this value have been returned to banks. The Reserve Bank said people are still holding pink notes worth Rs 7,117 crore, PTI reported. After these notes were withdrawn from circulation, initially their return was rapid, but now their return is very slow.
How many notes have been returned since July?
Data released by the Reserve Bank of India on July 1, 2024 showed that there were 2,000 rupee notes worth 75.81 billion rupees remaining on the market, and even by September 1, this number could not be less than 7,000 billion rupees. Only banknotes worth Rs 3.2 billion can be returned in these two months. Now, looking at the data for October, the slow pace of banknote withdrawals can be clearly estimated. Last year, when the notes were discontinued in May 2023, there were Rs 356 crore worth of notes in the market, and by December 29, 2023, the number had dropped to Rs 9,330 crore.
When and why were the 2000 rupee notes discontinued?
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it will withdraw this highest denomination Rs 2,000 note from circulation in the country on May 19, 2023, under the clean currency policy. Thereafter, the central bank gave time from May 23 to September 30, 2023, to return and exchange these notes at local banks and 19 RBI regional offices. However, this period has since been extended.
You can still deposit Rs 2000 notes
Let us tell you that these banknotes can still be exchanged, although local banks are not able to do this. The central bank has clarified that these pink notes, which are out of circulation, will be deposited at 19 RBI offices namely Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Belapur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh , Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, besides traveling to Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram, People can also deposit these notes through India Post through any post office nearest to them.
These notes were introduced after the first demonetisation
The central bank introduced Rs 2,000 denomination notes in November 2016 after the government decided to remove Rs 5,00 and Rs 1,000 notes from circulation. Thereafter, the target of issuance of Rs 2,000 notes was achieved after sufficient quantities of notes of other denominations were available. The Reserve Bank of India said that, therefore, printing of Rs 2,000 notes will be stopped in 2018-19.
