This Financial Year, RBI has not printed Rs 2000 notes: RTI

 | 

NEW DELHI | October 16, 2019:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stopped printing Rs 2,000 notes in the current financial year about several months ago. The RBI has said in its reply to the RTI.

According to sources, RBI has finally stop the printing of the high-value notes to help the government of India curb black money in the country.

Economist Nitin Desai, said, "Possibly, removing high-value notes from circulation makes it difficult to have too many black money transactions. But, it's a better policy than demonetisation, which was very disruptive. Here, you are not disrupting anything. You are simply withdrawing circulation."

"Many European countries have done this. But in India, we have a very large informal sector and an agricultural sector, which us cash rich," Desai said, adding that the value of total circulation is being maintained and there would not be much problem.

ALSO READ:Justice Goswami sworn in as new Chief Justice of Sikkim HC

Economist and author Sher Singh echoed a similar view. "Possibly, they are trying to stop people having a lot of cash or black money. Moreover, the government wants more and more digital transactions. Hoarding is also very easy with Rs 2,000 notes."

The RBI had introduced the Rs 2,000 note after the government's sudden announcement to ban old `500 and `1,000 notes in November 2016.

According to the central bank's RTI reply, 3,542.991 million notes of Rs 2,000 were printed during the financial year 2016-17.

However, the year 2017-18 saw a substantial reduction in printing and only 111.507 million notes were produced, which was further reduced to 46.690 million notes in the year 2018-19.

ALSO READ:Assam man dies as foreigner, family refuses to accept body

Officials said a high circulation of Rs 2,000 notes may defeat the government's objectives as they are easier to use for illegal purposes such as smuggling. In January, unaccounted cash of Rs 6 crore in Rs 2,000 notes was seized at Andhra-Tamil Nadu border.

Earlier this year, there were reports on printing of Rs 2,000 notes being stopped, but the government had denied that. Even the latest RBI data disclosed gradual reduction in circulation of the Rs 2,000 notes. There were 3,363 million such notes in circulation at the end of March 2018 — 3.3% of the total currency in circulation in terms of volume and 37.3% in terms of value.

This number fell to 3,291 million in FY 2019 — 3% and 31.2% of volume and value, respectively, of the total money in circulation.

The New Indian Express