No, Rs 2,000 Currency Notes Won't Be Banned: Finally, Modi Minister Clarifies In Rajya Sabha

The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday told the Rajya Sabha that there was no plan to ban the Rs 2,000 currency notes. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur told the Upper House that the government was not planning to demonetise the Rs,2000 notes that were launched after the 2016 note ban. The clarification comes amid various viral claims on social media about the fate of Rs 2,000 notes.

Screenshot of a circular went viral last week that sparked rumours about the ban of the Rs 2,000 notes. “…we hereby strictly instruct you to henceforth NOT TO ACCEPT Rs 2000 CURRENCY NOTES from the customers. If you have any of Rs 2000 currency Notes in your cash balance the same Notes needs to be deposited to the Bank immediately,” a Karnataka-based company’s viral circular stated.

The demonetisation was hailed as a step that would curb black money, corruption and check counterfeit currency, but the RBI, in its annual report for 2017, had said just 7.1 pieces of Rs 500 note per million in circulation and 19.1 pieces of Rs 1,000 notes per million in circulation were found to be fake in its sample survey.

The Central Bank had said that as much as 99 per cent of the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes had returned to the banking system, which had prompted the opposition to question the efficacy of the government's unprecedented note ban decision to curb black money and corruption. Following the note ban, old notes were allowed to be deposited in banks, with unusual deposits coming under the Income Tax department's scrutiny.