Daijiworld Media Network
Mangaluru, Jul 21: A sudden drop in the supply of Rs 2,000 currency from the Reserve Bank of India has given rise to the speculation that this could be a deliberate strategy to limit the supply of the notes.
Nearly eight months after Rs 1000 and Rs 500 was blacklisted, and new currency notes were introduced, the country is still reeling under the post demonetisation impact. The current shortage in the Rs 2,000 currency notes has bankers and ATM operators grappling for cash.
State Bank of India’s Chief Operating Officer Neeraj Vyas was quoted saying, “Presently we are receiving currency notes from the Reserve Bank in the denomination of Rs 500 in high-value currency. The Rs 2,000 denomination notes are coming over the counters by way of recirculation.”
Vyas adds there is shortage of Rs 2,000 notes in cities such as Patna, Kolkata and across the Andhra-Telangana region and could be due to fast and high usage of cash as well as hoarding.
Ravi Goyal, Managing Director of AGS Transact Technologies confirms that there is a definite shortage in supply of Rs 2,000 notes. However, RBI is ensuring that there is no cash crunch by pumping Rs 500 notes, he says. Goyal’s company manages around 60,000 ATMs in the country on behalf of banks.
According to bank analysts, the RBI rushed to print Rs 2,000 notes to manage the cash crunch immediately after demonetisation in November 2016. However, now it has reached a limit and RBI is not comfortable to print more. Hence, now they will be concentrating on printing lower denomination currency such as Rs 500 and maybe even Rs 200.
Managing director of Hitachi Payment Services Loney Antony reveals analysis done by his company based on RBI data. “There are more numbers of Rs 2000 notes in circulation compared to Rs 500. However, the currency in circulation has not yet reached pre-demonetisation levels,” he says.
The Latest RBI data shows the currency in the market was Rs 14.5 lac crore as of June 23, against the Rs 17 lac crore before November.