As per an RTI reply received from the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not printed a single new Rs 2,000 denomination currency note over the last two years.
Rs 2,000 note to be scrapped?
Is the Modi government looking to scrap Rs 2,000 notes? If this question has popped up in your mind recently, an RTI response can provide you with a hint. According to an RTI reply, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not printed a single new Rs 2,000 denomination currency note over the last two years.
As per an RTI reply received from the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran, which works under the RBI, ‘0’ number of 2,000 denomination currency notes were printed in 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22.
The RTI response also revealed that the number of Rs 2,000 notes in circulation has gone down drastically. The RTI reaction clearly shows a trend suggesting that a deliberate decision has been made to bring down the share of Rs 2,000 notes in circulation, reported the Economic Times.
The sources further reveal that Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran had printed 3,542.991 million pieces of Rs 2,000 notes in the financial year 2016-17, which drastically came down to 111.507 million notes in 2017-18 and was further reduced to 46.690 million notes in 2018-19.
The Rs 2,000 note is the highest denomination currency in India. The Central bank presented the new Rs 2,000 note after the Modi government announced the demonetization of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8, 2016.
Fake currency notes
Recently, the government, in a reply in the Parliament, had said that the number of fake currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination seized in the country as per NCRB data increased substantially between 2016 and 2020, from 2,272 to 2,44,834 pieces.
As per the data, the total number of fake Rs 2,000 notes seized in the country in 2016 was 2,272, which increased to 74,898 in 2017, and 90,566 pieces in 2019, before registering a big jump in 2020 to 2,44,834 pieces. As per the RTI, the central bank stopped printing the Rs 2,000 in 2020.
“More than 90 percent of the counterfeit notes detected in the banking system were of low quality and none of the major security features were compromised. Details of security features of these notes are displayed on the RBI website for the general public, said the reply in the Parliament.
