In a surprising move, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently announced the withdrawal of Rs.2000 banknotes from circulation.
This has left many people wondering about the appropriate course of action, if they possess these currency notes.
So here's a short and quick guide on what you should do if you currently hold Rs.2000 banknotes, to ensure a smooth transition and minimal inconvenience.
1. The banknotes of Rs.2000 denomination continue to be legal tender. So you can still use them for day-to-day transactions.
2. RBI has stipulated September 30, 2023 as the deadline, by which date you must deposit / exchange these banknotes. So there's no need urgency and hence you need not panic.
3. You can either deposit the Rs.2000 banknotes into your bank accounts and/or exchange them for banknotes of other denominations.
4. The process of deposit / exchange begins from May 23, 2023.
5. The facility to exchange is available at any bank branch, even if you don't have your account in that particular branch.
6. There is no limit on the amount of Rs.2000 banknotes that you can deposit in your account (in complaince with the KYC norms and other statutory requirements, if any).
7. However, if you wish to exchange them for other denominations, there is a limit of Rs.20,000 i.e. 10 notes at a time. But you can rejoin the queue, if have more than 10 notes to exchange. (For exchange through Banking Correspondents, the limit is 2 notes i.e. Rs.4000 per day.)
8. The exchange is free of cost and no fee is payable by you.
9. Nor do you have to fill up any slip, or provide any identification like Aadhaar etc. for exchanging the Rs.2000 banknotes.
10. The fate of undeposited or unexchanged Rs.2000 banknotes after Sept 30th is not yet known. So far RBI has not clarified this point.
