No currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination printed this financial year, says RBI in response to RTI enquiry

The Reserve Bank of India has not printed Rs 2,000 currency notes this financial year as the central bank has reportedly stopped printing it temporarily on security grounds, said media reports. The RBI has revealed this information in a reply to a Right To Information (RTI) query. The circulation of Rs 2,000 notes may not serve the purpose of the government as this high-value currency notes are easier to use for illegal purposes, according to a News18 report that quoting officials. [caption id=“attachment_6013191” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Keeping Rs 2,000 currency notes away from circulation is seen as a measure of a crackdown on black money as the lack of presence of this note will make illegal transactions like black money deals difficult, said the report citing views of the experts. Earlier, there were unconfirmed reports claimed that the RBI was not printing Rs 2,000 denomination notes due to security reasons. About 3,542.991 million notes of Rs 2,000 denomination were printed during fiscal 2017 and in the next financial year, the number saw a dip as the central bank printed only 111.507 million notes of the same denomination, said a report in Moneycontrol. The figure further fell by more than half, to 46.690 million Rs 2,000 notes in FY19, the report said. The Rs 2,000 denomination notes were introduced after demonetisation in 2016. As a result, the government had announced to withdraw Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination notes from the market in a bid to check black money and fake currency. Accordingly, the government first introduced a new Rs 500 denomination and subsequently brought out Rs 2,000 notes to the convenience of the people. About 3,285 million notes of Rs 2,000 denomination were in circulation in 2017, according to data available on RBI website. This figure had gone up to 3,363 million in 2018 and it declined to 3,291 million notes in FY19.