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| Photo Credit: R. Ragu

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday (November 4, 2024) said 98.04% of the ₹2000 banknotes have been returned to the banking system, and only ₹6,970 crore worth such notes are still with the public.

On May 19, 2023, the RBI announced the withdrawal of ₹2000 denomination banknotes from circulation.

The total value of ₹2000 banknotes in circulation was ₹3.56 lakh crore at the close of business on May 19, 2023. It has declined to ₹6,970 crore at the close of business on October 31, 2024, the RBI said.

“Thus, 98.04% of the ₹2000 banknotes in circulation as on May 19, 2023, has since been returned,” it said in a statement.

The facility for deposit and/or exchange of the ₹2000 banknotes was available at all bank branches till October 7, 2023. However, this facility is still available at the 19 issue offices of the Reserve Bank.

From October 9, 2023, the RBI issue offices are also accepting ₹2000 banknotes from individuals and entities for deposit into their bank accounts.

Further, members of the public can also send ₹2000 banknotes through India Post from any post office within the country to any of the RBI issue offices for credit to their bank accounts.

The 19 RBI offices depositing/exchanging the banknotes are in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Belapur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram.

The ₹2000 banknotes were introduced in November 2016, following the demonetisation of the then-prevailing ₹1000 and ₹500 banknotes.