No new Rs 2,000 notes printed since April 2019

No new currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination have been printed since April 2019, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur disclosed in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday. This was to prevent hoarding of the high-value currency and thus put a check on the black money.

He said printing of the bank notes of different denominations is decided by the government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to maintain desired denomination mix for facilitating transactional demand of the public. He said: "During the years 2019-20 and 2020-21, no indent has been placed with the presses for printing of Rs 2000 denomination banknotes."

Because of this decision, the circulation of the Rs 2,000 notes went down from 3,362 million pieces on March 30, 2018 to 2,499 million pieces on February 26, 2021. In terms of the volume, it dropped from 3.27% to 2.01% on these two dates respectively.

The government had to deny any move to demonetise the Rs 2,000 notes in the wake of drop in their circulation in the market.

The Rs 2,000 notes were introduced for th first time in November 2019, soon after the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 note in an attempt to curb black money and fake currencies. While the Rs 1,000 notes were discontinued, a new Rs 500 note was printed, besides the note of Rs 2,000 value.

Besides Rs 2000, the other currency notes in circulation are of the denomination Rs 200, Rs 100, Rs 50, Rs 20 and Rs 10.