No decision to discontinue printing of Rs 2,000 banknotes: FinMin

The government on Monday said no decision has been taken to discontinue printing of Rs 2,000 banknotes, and state-owned SBI and Indian Bank are reconfiguring ATMs for Rs 500 and Rs 200 notes.

"No indent was placed with the presses for printing of Rs 2,000 denomination notes for 2019-20. However, there is no decision to discontinue the printing of Rs 2,000 banknotes," Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The minister was replying to a question whether the government has stopped printing of new Rs 2,000 currency notes and if the public sector banks have issued any circular to stop circulation of Rs 2,000 notes through ATMs.

"In view of the higher circulation of currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 200 denominations and inconvenience faced by the customers in exchanging Rs 2,000 currency notes, two of the public sector banks namely State Bank of India and Indian Bank have been issued instructions to the field functionaries to reconfigure the ATMs for currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 200 denominations," Thakur said.

He said 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 demand of public.

Banknotes of Rs 2,000 denomination worth Rs 7.40 lakh crore have been printed and supplied so far, he said. The total face value of banknotes of Rs 2,000 denomination in circulation and in currency chests was Rs 5.49 lakh crore and Rs 0.93 lakh crore, respectively.

Detailing about the denomination of lower-value currencies in circulation as on March 5, he stated that there are 19,624.77 million pieces of Rs 100 notes valued at Rs 1.96 lakh crore; 8,556.84 million for Rs 50 notes valued at Rs 42,784.20 crore; Rs 20 and Rs 10 denomination notes were valued at Rs 16,619.60 crore and Rs 30,510.79 crore, respectively.

"The quantum of banknotes that needs to be printed broadly depends on the requirement for meeting the demand for banknotes due to inflation, GDP (gross domestic product) growth, replacement of soiled banknotes and reserve stock requirement," Thakur said.

As on March 5, 67,002.24 million pieces of banknotes of 10, 20, 20 and 100 rupees denominations and 5,005.98 million pieces of coins of 10 rupee denomination were in circulation, the minister added.

"Printing of banknotes of particular denomination is decided by the government in consultation with the RBI to maintain desired denomination mix for facilitating transactional demand for public," he added.