The Reserve Bank of India has begun printing Rs 200 notes at one of its government facilities, according to a report in The Economic Times on Wednesday.
The apex bank has not yet commented on the report, which quoted two unidentified officials. The new notes have additional security features to thwart counterfeiting operations, an official said. The introduction of the new notes is part of the Centre’s remonetisation plans.
“For day-to-day transaction purposes, the introduction of 200 rupee notes will add to the ease of operations,” the report quoted Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economist at the SBI Group, as saying. Ghosh said the demonetisation drive had created a void in circulation with the withdrawal of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes.
On April 4, Mint had reported that the RBI had approved a proposal to print Rs 200 notes. This will be the second new denomination of currency to be introduced after the government had demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in November 2016. Reports had said new Rs 10 and Rs 100 notes would also be introduced.
On June 21, the ministry of finance had said banks and other entities such as post offices that had collected the old Rs 500 notes and Rs 1,000 notes during demonetisation have less than a month to deposit them with the Reserve Bank of India.
The demonetised notes had accounted for nearly 86% of the amount of liquidity in the economy and their withdrawl caused a cash crunch in the country. The move was heavily criticised by Opposition parties and economists, even as the Centre said it would help fight black money, counterfeiting and terrorism. On February 17, RBI Governor Urjit Patel had said that the Indian economy would suffer from a slowdown because of demonetisation, but would soon recover from it.
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