RBI to withdraw ₹2,000 currency notes from circulation, will continue to be legal tender

• RBI announced the withdrawal of ₹2,000 currency notes from circulation on Friday.
• People possessing these notes can deposit them in their bank accounts or exchange them from May 23 to September 30.
• The RBI has also advised banks to stop issuing ₹2,000 denomination banknotes with immediate effect.
  

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced the withdrawal of ₹2,000 currency notes from circulation, but said that they will continue to be legal tender. People possessing these notes can deposit them in their bank accounts or get them exchanged from May 23 to September 30, the central bank said in a statement.

“In order to ensure operational convenience and to avoid disruption of regular activities of bank branches, exchange of ₹2000 banknotes into banknotes of other denominations can be made upto a limit of ₹20,000/- at a time at any bank starting from May 23, 2023,” the statement said.

The RBI has also advised banks to stop issuing ₹2,000 denomination banknotes with immediate effect. About 89% of the ₹2,000 denomination banknotes were issued prior to March 2017 and are at the end of their estimated life-span of 4-5 years.

The total value of these banknotes in circulation has declined from ₹6.73 lakh crore at its peak as on March 31, 2018 (37.3% of notes in circulation) to ₹3.62 lakh crore constituting only 10.8% of notes in circulation as on March 31, 2023.

“It has also been observed that this denomination is not commonly used for transactions. Further, the stock of banknotes in other denominations continues to be adequate to meet the currency requirement of the public. In view of the above, and in pursuance of the ‘Clean Note Policy’ of the RBI, it has been decided to withdraw the ₹2,000 denomination banknotes from circulation,” RBI said.

The facility for exchange of ₹2,000 banknotes upto the limit of ₹20,000/- at a time shall also be provided at the 19 Regional Offices (ROs) of RBI having Issue Departments from May 23, 2023.

"As witnessed during demonetisation, we expect the deposit accretion of banks could improve marginally in near term. This will ease the pressure on deposit rates hikes and could also result in moderation in short-term interest rates," said Karthik Srinivasan, senior VP, group head - financial sector ratings, ICRA.

It may be noted that RBI had undertaken a similar withdrawal of notes from circulation in 2013-2014.

The ₹2,000 notes were introduced in 2017, after the government of India went in for demonetization of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes in November 2016. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced this decision in a surprise speech that shocked the nation. He said that the move would curtail the shadow economy and encourage cashless transactions.