No plan to withdraw ₹100, ₹10 and ₹5 banknotes from circulation: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Monday, clarified that it has no plan to withdraw the old series of ₹100, ₹10 and ₹5 banknotes from circulation in near future.

In a tweet, the central bank said: “With regard to reports in certain sections of media on withdrawal of old series of ₹100, ₹10 and ₹5 banknotes from circulation in near future, it is clarified that such reports are incorrect.”

After the demonetisation exercise, whereby the legal tender status of ₹500 and ₹1,000 denomination banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series was withdrawn between November 10, 2016, till December 30, 2016, there have been rumours on and off about the central bank withdrawing ₹2,000 denomination notes.

As per RBI annual report, in 2019-20, the volume as well as value of ₹2,000 bank notes in circulation declined by about 17 per cent year-on-year. The data on indent and supply of banknotes shows that there was no printing of ₹2,000 bank notes in 2019-20 (April-March).

In value terms, the share of ₹500 and ₹2,000 bank notes together accounted for 83.4 per cent of the total value of bank notes in circulation at end-March 2020, with a sharp increase in the share of ₹500 bank notes.

In volume terms, ₹10 and ₹100 bank notes constituted 43.4 per cent of total bank notes in circulation at end-March 2020, the report said.

In January 2018, the RBI said that it had come to its notice that in certain places there was reluctance on part of traders and members of public to accept ₹ 10 coins due to suspicion about their genuineness.

The central bank then clarified that it puts into circulation, the coins minted by mints, which are under the Government of India. The Reserve Bank requested members of the public to continue to accept coins of ₹10 denomination as legal tender in all their transactions without any hesitation.