New Delhi, February 26: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday denied reports of giving instruction to banks to stop putting Rs 2,000 notes in ATM. Nirmala Sitharaman told news agency ANI, “As far as I know, no such instruction has been given to banks.” Recently reports surfaced that the banks were slowly removing the 2,000 notes from circulation and replacing these with Rs 500 note-currency. RBI to Ban Rs 2000 Notes And Release New Rs 1000 Notes on January 1, 2020? Viral Messages Fact-Checked.

Meanwhile, some reports also claimed that, banks without any instructions had started loading Rs 500-note in the ATMS for the convenience of the customers. According to Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) reply to an RTI, 354.29 Rs 2000 notes were published in 2016-17, while the number decreased to 11.15 crores in 2017-18 and to 4.66 crore in 2018-19. After which the reports of government discouraging the use of 2,000 notes surfaced.

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Earlier in December last year, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur in Parliament said that there were no proposal to withdraw Rs 2,000 notes. While replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Thakur said, “This is the real worry (about demonetisation) which has surfaced now. I think that you should not worry about it."

Rs 2000 note was introduced in November 2016 after demonetisation. Rs 1,000 notes and old Rs 500 notes were declared non-legal tender post mid midnight of November 8 that year. To address the subsequent cash crunch, the finance ministry had also released into circulation new notes of Rs 500 denomination notes, apart from the notes of Rs 2,000. The liquidity shock which the market had suffered, however, took two quarters to subside.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 26, 2020 09:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).