Farewell to the Rs 2,000 note, the unwanted child of demonetisation

Deadline September 30, the public can deposit notes in banks or 'exchange them into banknotes of other denominations'; no restrictions if deposited in personal account

Paran Balakrishnan, TT, 19.05.23 : So farewell the Rs 2,000 note, the unwanted child of demonetisation. The notes were created by the need to get enough money back into the economy in double-quick time.

Rs 2,000 notes will continue to be legal tender till September 30 but they will gradually be withdrawn from circulation, the Reserve Bank of India has announced.

The RBI move to pull the Rs 2,000 note from circulation had been widely predicted for three or four years and they had become increasingly rare in the marketplace.

Members of the public can deposit their Rs 2,000 notes in their banks or “exchange them into banknotes of other denominations at any bank branch,” the RBI said. However, people can only exchange up to Rs 20,000 if they are swapping notes at bank branches other than their own. People can start swapping their notes on May 23 and can continue till September 30.

In its release, the RBI admitted Rs 2,000 notes had been introduced in 2016-17, “primarily to meet the currency requirement of the economy in an expeditious manner,” soon after demonetisation. The RBI added: “The objective of introducing Rs 2,000 banknotes was met once banknotes of other denominations became available in adequate quantities.”

There will be no restrictions on deposits into a person’s bank account, the RBI said.

The RBI today added that it had stopped printing Rs 2,000 notes in 2018-19 and therefore most notes in circulation had reached the end of their ‘estimated lifespan’. “About 89% of the ₹2000 denomination banknotes were issued prior to March 2017 and are at the end of their estimated lifespan of 4-5 years,” the RBI said.

The bank added that the Rs 2,000 notes were being used less and less in transactions. “It has also been observed that this denomination is not commonly used for transactions.” Most crucially, “the stock of banknotes in other denominations continues to be adequate to meet the currency requirement of the public.”

At a peak on March 31, 2018, Rs 2,000 notes were worth Rs 6,73 lakh crore and amounted to 37.3 per cent of the notes in circulation. By March 31 this year, the total value of such notes had declined to Rs 3.62 lakh crore which amounted to 10.8 per cent of the notes in circulation.

When the notes had first been introduced it had drawn comments that they would be very convenient for people who wished to stash away black money. That too, they were being introduced soon after the Rs 1,000 notes had been withdrawn.

The RBI added that it had advised banks to stop issuing Rs 2.000 notes with immediate effect. It added that notes had similarly been withdrawn from circulation in 2013-14.