New Delhi, Mar 15: Indirectly admitting that the introduction of Rs 2,000 contributed towards black money, the government of India today said that no new Rs 2,000 notes have been printed since April 2019, in an attempt to prevent its hoarding and curb the circulation of black money in the economy.
In a written reply in Lok Sabha, minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur said that printing of banknotes of a particular denomination is decided by the government in consultation the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to maintain desired denomination mix for facilitating transactional demand of the public.
"During the years 2019-20 and 2020-21, no indent has been placed with the presses for printing of Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes," he said.
The move comes even as the quantum of the highest denomination currency note has reduced in the economy.
The minister informed the Parliament that 3,362 million currency notes of Rs 2,000 denomination were in circulation on March 30, 2018. However, as of February 26, 2021, only 2,499 million pieces of Rs 2,000 notes were in circulation.
While, currency in terms of volume reduced from 3.27 per cent to 2.01 per cent, that in terms of trade fell from 37.36 per cent in March 30, 2018 to 17.78 per cent in 2021.
Rs 2,000 notes came into circulation in November 2016 after the government announced demonetisation and withdrew notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in an attempt to curb black money and fake currencies.
While a new Rs 500 note was printed, Rs 1,000 currency notes were discontinued. Instead, Rs 2,000 note was introduced.
In 2019, the RBI had stated that 3,542.991 million notes of Rs 2,000 were printed during the financial year 2016-17 (April 2016 to March 2017).
However, the number kept on reducing and only 111.507 million notes were printed in 2017-18, which further reduced to 46.690 million notes in the year 2018-19.
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