On Monday, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Modi demanded the gradual elimination of the Rs 2000 currency notes from circulation. He said RBI stopped printing the notes three years ago, and there are rumours that the Rs 2000 currency notes would cease to be legal tender.
He said, “The printing of the Rs 2000 note, which the RBI introduced in 2016 to quickly replace the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, has been halted in the last three years”, due to a number of circulation-related challenges. He also added, that, Rs 2000 notes are being used for hoarding black money and money laundering. Thus, he demanded that the government should slowly phase out the Rs 2000 note, but also demanded that government should give citizens two years' time to exchange their legitimate holdings in the smaller denomination.
In the last three years, rumours have rife that the government is planning on phasing out high-value currency notes of Rs 2000. Thus, there is demand for clarity on it from the government is rising. As per a report of Economic Times, based on an RTI reply received from the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran, which works under the RBI. In the last two years, '0' number of 2,000 denomination currency notes were printed.
The RTI reply implies that the circulation of this high-value currency note has gone down drastically. Therefore, Sushil Modi’s statement holds water for those who believe that there are a lot of uncertainties around the future of the Rs 2000 note – whether will it remain in circulation or not, in the future. Earlier in February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cleared the air around reports on phasing out the Rs 2000 currency notes, she said there are no instructions given to the banks on stopping the issuance of Rs 2000 currency notes.
