The government on Monday said no new notes of Rs 2,000 denomination were printed in fiscal year 2019-20 and 2020-21 so far.
Printing of banknotes of particular denomination is decided by the government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to maintain desired denomination mix for facilitating transactional demand of public, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
"During the years 2019-20 and 2020-21, no indent has been placed with the presses for printing of Rs 2,000 denomination bank notes," he said.
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There were 336.20 crore pieces of Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes in circulation on March 30, 2018, constituting 3.27 per cent and 37.26 per cent of notes in circulation in terms of volume and value, respectively, the minister said citing RBI's data.
The number of Rs 2,000 notes declined to 249.90 crore as on February 26, 2021, constituting 2.01 per cent and 17.78 per cent of notes in circulation in terms of volume and value, respectively, Thakur added.
The central bank had introduced Rs 2,000 currency notes after the Centre demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016.
The percentage share of Rs 2,000 notes in terms of value as well as volume of notes in circulation has been constantly decreasing. As per RBI's data, the share of Rs 2,000 notes in volume terms stood at 3.3 per cent of total banknotes in circulation at the end of March 2018, which declined to 3 per cent and 2.4 per cent at the end of March 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Similarly, the share of Rs 2,000 notes was at 37.3 per cent in value terms at the end of March 2018, which declined to 31.2 per cent and 22.6 per cent at the end of March 2019 and 2020, respectively.
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