RBI urged people to approach the bank branches or ROs of RBI from May 23, 2023 for availing exchange facility. RBI urged people to approach the bank branches or ROs of RBI from May 23, 2023 for availing exchange facility. RBI urged people to approach the bank branches or ROs of RBI from May 23, 2023 for availing exchange facility. The Reserve Bank on Friday announced withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation but gave public time till September 30 to either deposit such notes in accounts or exchange them at banks. Unlike the November 2016 demonetisation when Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were invalidated overnight, the Rs 2,000 notes will continue to be legal tender till September 30, RBI said in a statement.
Where to exchange and what are the limits?
In order to exchange the notes, the central bank said that people can approach bank branches for deposit and/or exchange of Rs 2,000 banknotes held by them. The facility for deposit into accounts and exchange for Rs 2,000 banknotes will be available at all banks until September 30, 2023. “The facility for exchange will be available also at the 19 Regional Offices (ROs) of RBI having Issue Departments until September 30, 2023,” RBI said in a press note.
While the RBI did not specify a limit for depositing the Rs 2,000 currency notes in bank accounts, exchange of a maximum of Rs 20,000 (10 notes of Rs 2,000) for other currency notes will be allowed at a time. Even a non-account holder also can exchange Rs 2,000 banknotes up to a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time at any bank branch.
The exchange facility shall be provided free of cost, RBI said.
In terms of limitations, deposit into bank accounts can be made without restrictions subject to compliance with extant Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and other applicable statutory / regulatory requirements, the central bank said.
RBI also said that banks have been instructed to make arrangements to reduce inconvenience to the senior citizens, persons with disabilities, etc., seeking to exchange/deposit Rs 2,000 banknotes.
Deadline
To complete the exercise in a time-bound manner and to provide adequate time to the members of public, the RBI has asked all banks to provide deposit and/or exchange facility for Rs 2,000 bank notes until September 30, 2023.
RBI urged people to approach the bank branches or ROs of RBI from May 23, 2023 for availing exchange facility. This is done to give time to the banks to make preparatory arrangements.
As per the RBI, about 89 per cent of the Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes were issued prior to March 2017 and are at the end of their estimated life span of 4-5 years. The total value of such banknotes in circulation has declined from Rs 6.73 lakh crore at its peak as on March 31, 2018 (37.3 per cent of notes in circulation) to Rs 3.62 lakh crore constituting only 10.8 per cent of notes in circulation as on March 31, 2023.
The Rs 2,000 denomination bank note was introduced in November 2016, primarily to meet the currency requirement of the economy in an expeditious manner after the withdrawal of legal tender status of all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bank notes that were in circulation at that time.