Reserve Bank of India (RBI) The RBI said on Thursday that the share of Rs 500 notes in the total currency in circulation increased to 86.5 percent by March 2024, as against 77.1 percent in the same period a year ago. The central bank’s annual report attributes this jump to the announcement of withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes in May last year. Due to this decision, the share of Rs 2,000 notes fell to just 0.2 percent from 10.8 percent in the same period a year ago.
5.16 lakh notes are currently in the market
According to the data shared in the RBI’s annual report, as of March 31, 2024, the highest number of 5.16 lakh notes of Rs 500 were in circulation in terms of quantity, while the Rs 10 note stood second with 2.49 lakh notes. The report says that the value and quantity of bank notes in circulation increased by 3.9 percent and 7.8 percent respectively in the financial year 2023-24, while in the previous financial year this growth was 7.8 percent and 4.4 percent respectively. In terms of value, the increase in the number of bank notes in circulation is the lowest in recent years.
Demonetization was done in 2016
Regarding the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes, this report says that about 89 percent of the notes of this denomination introduced after demonetization in 2016 were in circulation for more than four years, so they needed to be replaced. Apart from this, those notes were not commonly used in transactions. According to the annual report, this withdrawal has also affected the identification of fake notes. During this period, more than 26,000 fake notes of Rs 2,000 were caught, whereas a year ago 9,806 fake notes were marked. However, the number of fake notes of Rs 500 caught decreased from 91,110 a year ago to 85,711.
Cash still in circulation
The total outstanding value of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) i.e. e-Rupee introduced on a pilot basis has been estimated at Rs 234.12 crore, while it was Rs 16.39 crore in March 2023. According to the annual report, 97.7 percent of the total Rs 3.56 lakh crore worth of Rs 2,000 notes held by the public were returned by March 31. In the financial year 2023-24, RBI spent Rs 5,101 crore on printing while Rs 4,682 crore was spent in the same period a year ago. The Reserve Bank also conducted a survey on the use of currency among the people. In this, more than 22,000 respondents indicated that cash is still ‘in vogue’ despite the popularity of digital payment methods.
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