RBI To Stop Exchange Of Rs 2,000 Notes At Bank Branches From Today

The Reserve Bank of India will stop the deposit and exchange of Rs 2,000 currency notes at bank branches from Saturday, Oct. 7.

From Oct. 8, the public will still be able to deposit or exchange this withdrawn currency note, but only at RBI issue offices.

This facility, however, would only be available up to a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time, the central bank said in a statement.

The Rs 2,000 bank notes will continue to be legal tender, unless mentioned otherwise.

Of the total value of Rs 3.56 lakh crore worth of Rs 2,000 notes in circulation (as of May 19), Rs 12,000 crore are yet to come back, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in a press conference after the Monetary Policy Committee announcement on Friday.

On Sept. 30, the RBI said that Rs 3.42 lakh crore of notes had come back as of Sept. 29, and Rs 14,000 crore were left.

This means that only Rs 2,000 crore worth of these bank notes have come back during the extended timeline given to the public by the RBI.

Starting Oct. 8, the public will also be able to send Rs 2,000 notes through India Post, addressed to any of the 19 RBI Issue Offices, for credit to their bank accounts in India, as per the central bank.

With the return of Rs 2,000 in bank notes in the system, there was some liquidity overhang as well. However, the central bank brought in some measures, like the imposition of an incremental cash reserve ratio, to aid that.

"Moderation in excess liquidity conditions, as a result of the combined impact of I-CRR and advance tax outflows in September, has resulted in greater recourse to the marginal standing facility (MSF) by banks," Governor Shaktikanta Das said in his monetary policy statement on Friday.