Exchange facility for Rs 2000 notes will be available only at bank branches and cannot be done through post offices, according to sources.

“Exchange facility is available only at banks. Customers can make deposits since Rs 2000 note is legal tender,” the sources said. Members of the public can start exchanging or depositing their Rs 2000 starting from today, RBI said while announcing last week the decision to withdraw the high-value currency from circulation.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday decided to withdraw the Rs 2000 denomination currency notes from circulation, but added they will continue to remain as legal tender. RBI had also advised banks to stop issuing Rs 2000 denomination banknotes with immediate effect.

Such high-value currency notes were primarily issued to quickly replenish the value of money being taken out from the system when the legal tender status of then-prevailing Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes was withdrawn during demonetisation.

RBI, however, said that citizens will continue to be able to deposit Rs 2000 banknotes into their bank accounts and/or exchange them into banknotes of other denominations at any bank branch up to September 30, 2023.

The exchange of Rs 2000 bank notes into notes of other denominations can be made upto a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time at any bank starting from May 23, 2023.

Speaking on the September 30 deadline exchange of Rs 2000 notes, the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday said a date was decided so that people take the process seriously and it does not become endless.

“…Time is given up to September 30 (for exchange of notes) so that it is taken seriously, otherwise, if you leave it open-ended, it becomes a kind of an endless process,” Das told reporters.

According to RBI, the objective of introducing Rs 2000 banknotes was met once banknotes in other denominations became available in adequate quantities. Therefore, the printing of Rs 2000 banknotes was stopped subsequently in 2018-19.

About 89 per cent of the Rs 2000 denomination banknotes were issued prior to March 2017 and are at the end of their estimated life span of four-five years.

The total value of these banknotes in circulation has declined from Rs 6.73 lakh crore at its peak in 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.

Meanwhile, the State Bank of India, in a communication shared with all its circles, said no ID cards or requisition forms are needed to exchange Rs 2000 currency notes. The customers, however, would be allowed to exchange a maximum of ten currency notes of Rs 2000 at a time.