New Delhi, Aug. 25 (IANS): Currency notes of INR 2,000 were not printed at all in financial year 2019-20, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The central bank's Annual Report for 2019-20 also showed that the supply of banknotes during the period was lower by 23.3 per cent than in the previous year, mainly due to the disruptions caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdown.
The number of INR 2,000 notes in circulation came down from 329.10 crore pieces in March 2019 to 273.98 crore notes in March 2020.
The quantity of INR 2,000 denomination notes constituted 2.4 per cent of the total volume of notes at end of March 2020, down from 3 per cent at end-March 2019. Further, in terms of value, the share of INR 2,000 notes has come down to 22.6 per cent at end of the financial year 2019-20, down from 31.2 per at the end of the previous financial year.
The report also said that compared to the previous year, there was an increase of 144.6 per cent, 28.7 per cent, 151.2 per cent and 37.5 per cent in counterfeit notes detected in the denominations of INR 10, INR 50, INR 200 and INR 500, respectively.
Counterfeit notes detected in the denominations of INR 20, INR 100 and INR 2,000 declined by 37.7 per cent, 23.7 per cent and 22.1 per cent, respectively, it said. "The total expenditure incurred on security printing during July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 was INR 4,377.84 crore as against INR 4,810.67 crore in the previous year mainly due to lower indent placed during the year," said the report.