According to the SBI Research Report, the Reserve Bank of India is either holding back the supply of RS 2,000 notes or may have stopped printing the high denomination currency. Basically, it is being speculated that an amount of INR 2.46 Lakhs was printed by RBI but wasn’t supplied to the market.
The SBI Ecoflash Report compared the data presented in Lok Sabha with the one provided by RBI in its annual report and suggested that the small denomination currency in circulation up to March 2017 was INR 3,50,100 Crores. This implies that after netting out small denomination notes, the high denomination notes were worth INR 13,32,400 as on December 8.
The SBI report also stated that as on December 8, RBI printed 16,957 million pieces of 500 rupee notes and 3,654 pieces of 2,000 rupee notes. The total values of these notes stand at INR 15,78,700 Crores. This would mean that the remaining amount of INR 2,46,300 Crores may have been printed but wasn’t supplied by the RBI.
Considering the issues posed by 2,000 rupee notes in transactions, it seems logical that RBI has either stopped printing these notes or printing them in very small quantities. This also implies that the share of small currency notes in circulation may have touched 35% in value terms.
In case RBI has stopped printing these notes altogether it may also mean that the 2,000 notes may soon become worthless. Right after the government banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and issued new notes of 500 and 2,000, people have been facing a lot of problems in transactions. So it’s quite possible that the authorities are considering to chalk out a plan for the same.
