The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has informed that on September 1, 93 per cent of Rs 2000 currency notes in circulation returned to the banking system. This amounts to Rs 3.32 lakh crore worth of these banknotes.
At the close on August 31, Rs 2000 banknotes in circulation stood at Rs 0.24 lakh crore.
Of the total notes received, about 87 per cent were in the form of deposits and the remaining 13 per cent were exchanged with lower denomination bills, the central bank said.
It further urged the public to utilise the remaining time period to exchange or deposit Rs 2,000 notes.
In pursuance of the ‘Clean Note Policy’, the RBI had announced on May 19 the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency bills from circulation.
As per the data shared by RBI, about 89% of the Rs 2000 denomination banknotes were issued prior to March 2017 and are at the end of their estimated life-span of 4-5 years.
The total value of these banknotes in circulation has declined from Rs 6.73 lakh crore at its peak as on March 31, 2018 (37.3 per cent of Notes in Circulation) to Rs 3.62 lakh crore constituting only 10.8 per cent of Notes in Circulation on March 31, 2023.
The RBI has also observed that this denomination was not commonly used for transactions, and the stock of banknotes in other denominations continues to be adequate to meet the currency requirement of the public.
To complete the exercise in a time-bound manner and to provide adequate time to the members of public, RBI said all banks shall provide deposit and/or exchange facility for Rs 2000 banknotes until September 30, 2023.