35% of Rs 2,000 notes deposited, exchanged so far

The withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes, which started on May 23, has gathered pace with around 35 percent of them being either deposited or exchanged.

As per national media reports, there were 1.81 billion pieces of Rs 2,000 notes in circulation on March 31, about 1.3 percent of the total circulation in volume terms. Gujarat, Punjab, and New Delhi saw the most return of the Rs 2,000 denomination.

Around 80 percent of the notes returned have been deposited and the rest exchanged.

There have been no long queues and panicking customers since banks started exchanging the high-value banknotes. It has been far less disruptive than the 2016 demonetization exercise since a lower value of notes are being withdrawn over a much longer period of time.