Nearly 98 percent of Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes have returned to the banking system: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on August 1 said that 97.92 percent of the Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes have returned to the banking system, and only Rs 7,409 crore worth of the withdrawn notes are still with the public.

The Reserve Bank announced the withdrawal of Rs 2000 denomination banknotes from circulation on May 19, 2023. The total value of Rs 2000 banknotes in circulation, which was Rs 3.56 lakh crore at the close of business on May 19, 2023, when the withdrawal was announced, has declined to Rs 7,409 crore at the close of business on July 31, 2024.

“Thus, 97.92 per cent of the Rs 2,000 banknotes in circulation as on May 19, 2023, has since been returned,” the central bank said in a statement.

The facility for deposit and/or exchange of the Rs 2000 banknotes was available at all bank branches in the country till October 7, 2023. The exchange facility has been available at the 19 issue offices of the RBI since May 19, 2023.

From October 9, 2023, the RBI issue offices are also accepting Rs 2,000 currency notes from individuals and entities for deposit into their bank accounts.

The 19 RBI offices depositing/exchanging the banknotes are in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Belapur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram.

Moreover, the public can also avail the India Post facility to send Rs 2,000 denomination notes from any post office within the country to any of the RBI issue offices for credit to their bank accounts.

The Rs 2000 banknotes were introduced in November 2016, following the demonetisation of the then-prevailing Rs 1000 and Rs 500 banknotes.