New Delhi: The currency notes of Rs 2,000 declined in circulation during the year ended March 2020. The Rs. 500 notes circulation increased, as per the RBI’s Annual Report. The report also shows, Rs 2,000 notes were not printed in 2019-20, while 1,200 crore pieces of Rs 500 notes were printed. In year 2018-2019 RBI printed 5 crore pieces of Rs 2,000 notes.
The circulation numbers declined to 27,398 lakh and Rs 547,952 crore in March 2020 compared to 32,910 lakh pieces valued at Rs 6,58,199 crore of Rs 2,000 notes in March 2019. Currently, Rs 2,000 notes comprise o22.6 per cent of the total value, as against 37.3 per cent in 2018 and 31.2 per cent in 2019.
Nonetheless, the value of Rs 500 notes increased to Rs 14.72 lakh crore in March 2020 from Rs 10.75 lakh crore in 2019. The number of Rs 500 notes also rose from 215,176 lakh pieces in 2019 to 294,475 lakh pieces. The Rs 500 notes comprise 60% of the total value of bank notes in India compared to 51 per cent last year.
According to RBI, ‘The making of banknotes for 2019-20 was lower by 13.1 per cent than that of a year ago. The supply of banknotes during 2019-20 was also lower by 23.3 per cent than in the previous year mainly due to the disruptions caused by the outbreak of COVID-19’ .