₹2,000 banknotes continue to be legal tender even as 97.26% of circulating banknotes return to RBI

livemint.com:

Bank of India (RBI) on Friday, December 1, 2023, announced that around 97 per cent of ₹2,000 banknotes have been returned till November 30, 2023. While the amount of ₹2000 banknotes still circulating in the economy stood at ₹9,760 crore. The central bank added that ₹2000 banknotes will continue to be legal tender.

According to the central bank, 97.26 per cent of the ₹2000 banknotes that were circulated in the economy till May 19, 2023, have been returned. At the time of the announcement of the withdrawal of the banknotes, the total value of ₹2000 banknotes in circulation was ₹3.56 lakh crore. Initially, banks provided the opportunity to deposit and/or exchange ₹2000 banknotes up to September 30, 2023.

However, it was extended to October 7, 2023. In May this year, RBI said it had decided to withdraw ₹2,000 currency notes from circulation and advised banks not to issue ₹2,000 notes with immediate effect. As a part of the “Clean Note Policy" on May 19 this year, the RBI decided to withdraw the ₹2,000 denomination banknotes from circulation.

The public was asked to deposit banknotes. The ₹2000 denomination banknote was introduced in November 2016, primarily to meet the currency requirement of the economy in an expeditious manner after the withdrawal of the legal tender status of all ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes in circulation at that time. Livemint earlier reported that around 89 per cent of the ₹2000 denomination banknotes were issued prior to March 2017 and were at the end of their estimated life span of 4-5 years.