The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will withdraw ₹ 2,000 Currency Notes from Circulation with immediate effect. The currency note will be legal tender till September 30, 2023 and the Bank has instructed all banks to accept the currency note till the given date.

In a statement released on Friday, 19 May, the RBI said, “In pursuance of the ‘Clean Note Policy’ of the Reserve Bank of India, it has been decided to withdraw the ₹2000 denomination banknotes from circulation. The banknotes in ₹2000 denomination will continue to be legal tender. To complete the exercise in a time-bound manner and to provide adequate time to the members of public, all banks shall provide deposit and/or exchange facility for ₹2000 banknotes until September 30, 2023.”

The RBI also said that the exchange facility for the ₹2000 currency note will begin from May 23, and will be for amounts upto Rs 20,000 at a time.

In its circular issued on 19 May, the RBI announced withdrawl of the 2000 denomination currency note. The RBI had begun printing the ₹ 2,000 Currency Note from November 2016 under Sec 24(1) of RBI Act 1934 to primarily meet the currency requirement of the economy after the withdrawal of legal tender status of all ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes in circulation at that time. In its circular the RBI said that the objective of introducing the ₹2000 currency note was met once the bank notes in other denominations became available in adequate quantities. The printing of ₹2000 currency note was already stopped in 2018-19. Nearly 89% of the ₹2000 currency note were issued before March 2017 and are at the end of their estimated life span of 4-5 years, the central bank stated.