No proposal to stop circulation of ₹2,000 currency notes: Government

The government has no plans to stop circulation of the ₹2000 currency notes.

Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs has stated this in a wriiten reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

In reply to the question of whether the Government is contemplating to stop circulation of the ₹2000 notes in phased manner, the Minister stated that there is no such proposal with the Government.

₹2,000 bank notes account for about one-third of currency in circulation in value terms. They were circulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in November 2016 after demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes.

Citing the Annual Report of the Reserved Bank of India, the Minister further stated that the share of value of ₹2,000 denomination banknotes in circulation ( ₹6,582 billion) to the value of total notes in circulation ( ₹21,109 billion) was 31.18%, as on 31.03.2019.

An analysis of the search cases, conducted by Income Tax Department (ITD) involving cash seizures of more than ₹5 crores in the last three Financial Years, reveals that there is a declining trend visible in the seizure of unaccounted cash in denomination of ₹2,000 notes. Out of the total cash seized, the percentage of unaccounted cash seized in denomination of ₹2,000, is 67.91%, 65.93% and 43.22% in Financial Years 2017-18, 2018-19 and the current financial year, respectively.

Meanwhile, Former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said ₹2,000 notes are not much used for transaction and are less in circulation, hence there is nothing wrong in replacing them with smaller currently notes.