Rs 2000 notes to discontinue? Here's what Minister said in Parliament

The Finance Ministry on Monday said that Rs 2000 notes have not been printed in the last two years. The ministry was answering a question on why the currency notes introduced after demonetization in 2016 were hardly in circulation now.

Anurag Thakur, the Minister of State for finance on Monday (March 15) while speaking in the Lok Sabha said that 2000-rupee notes were not sent to the printing press in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

MDMK MP A Ganeshamurthi had questioned the government if it were aware of the fact that the circulation of ₹ 2,000 currency notes among the people was "very low" and it was not available in banks and ATMs even.

Explaining the printing of the currency was based on the demand, MoS Anurag Thakur replied saying, "The printing of banknotes of particular denomination is decided by the government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to maintain desired denomination mix for facilitating transactional demand of public."

The decision was also taken based on whether it was convenient to use. There was a drop in the circulation of the 2,000-rupee note, the minister added.

In 2020, a top official had stated that Rs 2,000 notes accounted for 35 per cent of the total circulation.

The Rs 2,000 notes along with the new Rs 500 currency were introduced in 2016 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation in November 2016 which led to the scrapping of the Rs 1000 notes and old Rs 500 notes.