The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, on May 19, notified that the ₹2000 bank note, which was brought into circulation in November 2016, will be withdrawn for circulation. It will however continue to remain as a legal tender.
RBI has stated that the public can deposit Rs.2000 bank notes in the bank account / exchange in the usual manner. 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.
To complete the exercise in a time-bound manner and to provide adequate time to the public, all banks shall provide deposit and/or exchange facility for ₹2000 banknotes until September 30, 2023. Separate guidelines have been issued to the banks on the same. The RBI has also advised banks to stop issuing ₹2000 denomination banknotes with immediate effect.
A document on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in the matter has been hosted on the RBI website for information and convenience of the public.
The ₹2000 denomination banknote was introduced in November 2016 primarily to meet the currency requirement of the economy, as part of the demonetisation strategy, after the withdrawal of legal tender status of all ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes, in circulation at that time. The objective of introducing ₹2000 banknotes was met once banknotes in other denominations became available in adequate quantities. Therefore, printing of ₹2000 banknotes was stopped in 2018-19. The RBI also observed that this denomination is not commonly used for transactions and the stock of other denominations banknotes is adequate to meet the currency requirement of the public, thus prompting the decision for the withdrawal of ₹2000 banknote.
