No plan to demonetise Rs 2,000 note: Jaitley

The government is not considering banning Rs 2,000 notes while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will decide when to issue the new Rs 200 note that has been notified, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday.

Asked whether the government was considering the phasing out of newly introduced Rs 2,000 notes, Jaitley told reporters here after a meeting of the cabinet: "No, there was no such discussion."

On the Rs 200 notes notified by the government on Wednesday, Jaitley said the RBI would decide on the matter.

"The whole process regarding when the notes will be printed, RBI will take care of that issue. Thus, it will be appropriate for the RBI to announce about dates and matters related to the note printing," Jaitley said.

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday formally announced the launch of the new Rs 200 note.

Earlier, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar told IANS that the Rs 200 note, printing of which had begun, would be in circulation soon.

The move to introduce the new currency was to increase the circulation of smaller denomination notes.

Post-demonetisation, there have been reports of people facing problems in using the Rs 2,000 note as sufficient quantum of smaller denomination notes of Rs 100 and Rs 500 were not available.

--IANS

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