The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has revealed in a reply to an RTI that the printing of Rs 2,000 currency notes has been stopped. Not a single Rs 2,000 note has been printed this financial year.

The RBI printed 3,542.991 million notes in the financial year 2016-17, which came down to 111.507 million notes in 2017-18 and was further reduced to 46.690 million notes in the year 2018-19, as revealed in a reply by the RBI to an RTI filed by The New Indian Express.

According to officials, the high circulation of Rs 2,000 notes might defeat the government's objectives as it is easier to smuggle the high-denomination notes. Earlier there were reports that printing of Rs 2,000 notes have been stopped but the government had denied the same.

As per data released by RBI, there were 3,363 million notes in circulation at the end of March 2018, which amounted to 3.3 per cent of the total currency in circulation in terms of volume and 37.3 per cent in terms of value.

The RTI answer comes just as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) claimed that 'high quality' fake currency notes have resurfaced, with Pakistan being the main source.

The apex bank had introduced the Rs 2,000 note after the government announced the decision to ban old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in November 2016. While new Rs 500 notes were minted, there have been no new Rs 1,000 notes.

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