About 98% Of Rs 2,000 Notes Back; Rs 6,977 Cr Remains Unreturned: RBI

Nearly a year and a half after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to withdraw Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes on 19 May 2023, the total value of Rs 2,000 notes that remain unreturned stands at Rs 6,977.6 crore as of 31 October 2024, according to RBI data.

The latest figures reveal that 98.04 per cent of the Rs 2,000 banknotes in circulation as of the May 2023 decision have already been returned. This leaves only 1.96 per cent of these banknotes, equating to Rs 6,977.6 crore, still in circulation from the original Rs 3.56 lakh crore on 19 May 2023.

Since the RBI’s withdrawal decision, updates on the process have been periodically released, with the most recent report on 1 October 2024 noting that Rs 7,117 crore was still in circulation. Over the past month, this amount has decreased to Rs 6,977.6 crore.

Introduced in November 2016 to address currency shortages following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the Rs 2,000 denomination served its purpose as lower denominations became more widely available. Consequently, the RBI stopped printing Rs 2,000 notes in 2018-19, as nearly 89 per cent of them had been issued before March 2017 and were reaching the end of their four-to-five-year lifespan.

Since their peak circulation value of Rs 6.73 lakh crore in March 2018—when they made up 37.3 per cent of all notes in circulation—the Rs 2,000 notes declined in circulation to Rs 3.62 lakh crore by March 2023, representing only 10.8 per cent of notes in circulation.