RBI reports 97.82% of Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes have been returned

The Reserve Bank stated that nearly 97.82 percent of the Rs 2000 denomination banknotes, which were removed from circulation on May 19, 2023, have been returned to the system. As of May 31, the total worth of currency notes that are still outside the system is Rs 7,755 crore.
Until May 19, 2023, the overall worth of Rs 2000 currency notes in circulation equaled Rs 3.56 lakh crore.

The financial regulator quickly launched the Rs 2000 currency notes following the well-known demonetization move by the Modi administration on May 8, 2016. The primary goal was to eradicate illegal money and eventually promote cashless transactions. The government's announcement included the decision to cancel the legal tender of the Rs 1000 and 500 notes, which at the time made up nearly 87% of the currency in circulation.

Cash's role in the system has increased by over two-fold, rising from approximately Rs 17 trillion on November 8, 2016, to more than Rs 34 trillion in March 2024. The spontaneous decision resulted in significant public difficulties and the deaths of more than 100 individuals as they stood in lines at bank branches to deposit the prohibited currency.

The RBI announced on Monday that only Rs 7,755 crore of Rs 2000 banknotes are yet to be returned, making up 97.82 percent of the total value in circulation as of May 19, 2023. The central bank has been regularly releasing updates on the progress of the withdrawal of the 2000 banknotes, having done so three times since then, with the most recent one being on May 2, 2024.

Following the request for all bank branches to accept these notes until October 7, 2023, special counters were established at certain branches for depositing or exchanging these bank notes. Exchange services have been accessible at all 19 issue offices of the Reserve Bank since May 19, 2023. It also permitted the general public to mail these banknotes via India Post to any of the issuing offices to have them credited to their bank accounts.

The regulator emphasized that these banknotes are still considered valid for transactions.

The RBI has 19 offices located in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Belapur (Navi Mumbai), Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna, and Thiruvananthapuram.