Nirendra Dev
New Delhi
To many it came as a shock, for most common people it did not matter much as the circulation of Rs 2000
notes had declined substantially.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes that were
introduced in 2016 after the demonetisation policy from circulation.
However, the central bank gave public time till September 30, 2023 to either deposit such notes in accounts or
exchange them at banks.
Unlike the November 2016 shock demonetisation when old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were banned
outright overnight, the Rs 2,000 notes will continue to be a legal tender till September 30.
RBI expects that 4 month time is enough for people to exchange notes with the banks. Most of the Rs 2000
notes that are in circulation will return to banks within the given time frame of 30th September.
“This is a routine exercise of the RBI and people need not panic,” sources said.
From the opposition camp, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal went ‘personal’ against Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and said, “ek anpad pradhan mantri ko koi bhi kuchh bol sakta hae (Any one finds its easy to mislead an
uneducated Prime Minister)”. He said that this is the reason why he says that the PM should be educated.
The fact of the matter is different and many like ‘educated’ intellectuals and leaders like Kejriwal may not bother much.
The central bank (RBI) has noted lately that the Rs 2000 denomination note is no longer commonly used for
transactions, as its circulation has come down from Rs 26.73 lakh crore in March 2018 to a modest Rs 3.62 lakh
crore in March 2023.
On 19 May, the Reserve Bank of India announced that it is withdrawing the circulation of Rs 2000 currency
notes. RBI informed that it had stopped printing the high value notes in 2018-19, most of the notes have reached
their end of life. In fact, the official explanation is the notes are being withdrawn in pursuance of the “Clean Note Policy”.
The RBI has said that people can exchange the Rs 2000 notes they may be having at banks from 23 May to
30 September. Only Rs 20,000 can be exchanged at a time, which means taking notes in other denominations
by depositing Rs 2000 notes. There may be no limit on depositing the Rs 2000 notes in bank accounts.
In 2018, Rs 2000 notes formed 38 percent of the total cash chest and in 2023, it is only 10.8 percent.
It is evident that the notes were taken out of circulation in a gradual manner and therefore, the current
move was in play for a long time. The moot point is the idea was to minimise the trouble caused to
the common public.
In 2020 itself, reports started to appear in the media about the disappearing Rs 2000 notes and ATMs were
mostly dispensing only Rs 500 notes.
One politician in the opposition camp summed up the spirit of the common man on the issue saying,
“No problem I don’t have much of that denomination .. maybe not even a single note… so no issue”.
ends