Authors
A Facebook user shared a screenshot which states that Rs 2000 notes will no longer be available from ATMs and that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stopped issuing the notes.
The screenshot reads, “Now two thousand notes will not be available from ATM. The two thousand notes from the Reserve Bank are currently closed. Banks have also started removing caliber of Rs 2,000 notes from ATM machine. The Central Bank of India has started this. The Central Bank has removed the caliber from its 58 ATM machine. Other banks may also start now.”
Fact Check/ Verification
Printing of banknotes is done by the government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India. Any official communication put forward by RBI is published on the official website of the Central Bank. And we could not find any information supporting the claim on the website.
On 2 December, the Press Information Bureau’s Fact Check branch debunked this claim. Translated from Hindi to English, the claim reads, “It is being claimed in a news article that the Reserve Bank of India has stopped the supply of 2000 rupee notes due to which only 100, 200 and 500 rupee notes can be withdrawn from ATMs. #PIBFactcheck : This claim is fake. @RBI has ₹ The supply of 2000 notes has not stopped.”
Earlier this year, in response to unconfirmed reports, the government clarified that it hasn’t taken any decision on discontinuing the printing of Rs 2000 currency notes.
In September 2020, the Minister of State for Finance, Anurag Thakur, told Lok Sabha in a written reply that “Printing of bank notes of particular denomination is decided by the Government in consultation with RBI to maintain desired denomination mix for facilitating transactional demand of public.”
No indent has been placed with the presses for printing Rs 2000 currency notes during the year 2019-20 and 2020-21. “However, there is no decision to discontinue the printing of Rs. 2000 denomination bank notes by the Government,” added Thakur in response to a question on “whether printing of Rs. 2000 denomination notes has been discontinued by the Government.”
The minister also said that there were 27, 398 lakh pieces of Rs 2000 currency notes in circulation as of 31 March 2020 compared to 32, 910 lakh note pieces on 31 March 2020.
In view of the nationwide lockdown caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, printing of press notes stopped temporarily. However, pressed have resumed production in a phased manner as per guidelines issued by the Central/ State government, he added.
Conclusion
Our research makes it clear that there is no official news from RBI or Central bank to support this claim. PIB fact-check has also clarified that RBI has not stopped the supply of Rs 2,000 notes, and the claim in context is fake.
Result: False
Our Sources
Press Information Bureau Fact Check: https://twitter.com/PIBFactCheck/status/1334143216774307841?s=20
Minister of State for Finance, Anurag Thakur’s written reply in Lok Sabha: https://loksabhaph.nic.in/Questions/QResult15.aspx?qref=17590&lsno=17
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