Consequent to the announcement of withdrawal of Legal Tender status of banknotes of ₹ 500 and ₹ 1000 denominations from the midnight of November 8, 2016, the Reserve Bank of India made arrangements for supply of adequate quantity of banknotes in various denominations to the public through the banks.

Over the period from November 10, 2016 upto December 19, 2016, banks have reported that banknotes worth ₹ 5,92,613 crore have been issued to public either over the counter or through ATMs.

In this period, the Reserve Bank has issued to the banks and their branches, for distribution to the public, a total of 22.6 billion pieces of notes of various denominations of which 20.4 billion pieces belonged to small denominations of ₹ 10, 20, 50 and 100s and 2.2 billion belonged to higher denominations of ₹ 2000 and ₹ 500.

As regards printing of currency, RBI periodically estimates and reviews the demand for currency and accordingly in consultation with Government of India indents for supply is placed with the Presses. The same is a continuous process.

Neither such data is available with the Government nor RBI has come across any confirmed reports of detection of counterfeit notes of the denomination of ₹ 2000 in the banking channel.

This was stated by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Withdrawal of Legal Tender status prompted large-scale currency redistribution and public supply by the central bank. The withdrawal of Legal Tender status prompted the RBI to arrange supply of banknotes to the public via banks between November 10 and December 19, 2016; the RBI issued 22.6 billion pieces to banks for distribution with a predominance of smaller denominations, and reporting indicated no confirmed detection of counterfeit notes of the highest new denomination in the banking channel.