Supply of Rs 2,000 notes down by 69% in FY19

The supply of the Rs 2,000 denomination notes went down by 68.9% during 2018-19 to 47 million notes from 151 million notes a year ago.

According to the annual report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the central bank supplied 47 million Rs 2,000 notes between April 2018 and March 2019.

The central has stopped printing Rs 2,000 notes in a bid to slowly reduce their circulation in January.

The decision came on the back of suspicion in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government that the high-denomination banknote was being used for hoarding, tax evasion and money laundering.

The Rs 2,000 note was introduced in November 2016, after the government demonetised Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations as part of an exercise pitched as a crackdown on black money. At that time, to counter the massive cash shortage, the government flooded the country with new Rs 2,000 notes. The country had printed 3.504 billion notes of Rs 2,000 denomination in 2016-17.

Read | RBI annual report 2018-19: 7 Key takeaways

On the other hand, supply of Rs 500 denomination notes went up by 18.3% during the previous financial year. The central bank printed 11.47 billion notes of Rs 500, far highet than 9.7 billion printed a year ago.

All the other denomination notes saw a jump in supply except for Rs 50 denomination notes, which saw a marginal dip.

The Rs 2,000 note was introduced in November 2016, after the government demonetised Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations as part of an exercise pitched as a crackdown on black
money. At that time, to counter the massive cash shortage, the government flooded the country with new Rs 2,000 notes.