‘Over Two-Third Of Rs 2,000 Notes Have Returned To System’: RBI Governor – News18

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Sunday said that within a month of the withdrawal order of Rs 2,000 notes, more than two-thirds of the total currency in circulation has returned to the system. As part of the policy, the central band on May 19 announced that the notes worth around Rs 3.62 lakh crore will be withdrawn from circulation.

Speaking in an interview with PTI, Governor Shaktikanta Das said, “More than two-thirds or Rs 2.41 lakh crore worth of the Rs 3.62 lakh crore (as of March 31, 2023) of the now-recalled 2000 banknotes have come back to the system as of mid-last week.”

The RBI governor also added that approximately 85 per cent of the overall funds have returned to the system in deposits, with the remaining portion allocated to currency exchanges.

He also mentioned that people don’t need to rush to nearby banks to exchange the Rs 2,000 notes even though the central bank has set September 30 as the last day to exchange the currency note.

Earlier, on June 8, announcing the second monetary policy review of the financial year, the RBI governor informed that around Rs 1.8 lakh crore worth of Rs 2,000 currency notes have been returned to the system which was approximately 50 per cent of the notes in the circulation.

He also spoke about the impact on the economy since the announcement. The RBI governor said that he cannot see any “negative impact of the note recall” on the economy at all.

This fiscal year, RBI and the central government projected the GDP to clip at 6.5 per cent and q1 printing in at 8.1 per cent and then tapering off in the subsequent quarters.

According to the RBI announcement, the existing Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes would continue to be legal tender. Shaktikanta Das said that he was unsure about asking the Centre to cancel the legal tender status of these notes after the deadline, September 30.

The Rs 2,000 notes were introduced in November 2016, soon after the central government announced demonetisation where it withdrew the legal tender status of all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. By March 2017, about 89 per cent of the Rs 2,000 banknotes were issued. By the following fiscal year, the total value of the banknotes in circulation witnessed a decline from Rs 6.73 lakh crore to Rs 3,63 lakh crore. RBI’s mint stopped printing the Rs 2,000 notes back in 2018-2019.