'Moody Person's Decision': Sharad Pawar After RBI Withdraws Rs 2,000 Currency Notes

New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Monday said that the decision to withdraw Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation was like the act of a 'moody person'. Speaking to reporters in Pune, the veteran leader said that post demonetisation, institutions like the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank suffered as several crore rupees lying with it could not get exchanged from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

"It is like a moody person's decision. I have received some complaints about the decision to discontinue Rs 2000 currency notes," Sharad Pawar said.

When demonetisation was announced in November 2016, the government said there would be a miracle, but what we found was that people died by suicide and industries shut down after suffering losses, he added.

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His reaction came after the RBI on May 19 announced the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation and said existing notes in circulation can either be deposited in bank accounts or exchanged by September 30.

Withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes part of 'currency management': RBI Governor

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Monday said that the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 bank notes is part of the 'currency management operations' of the Reserve Bank and said that he expects most of the withdrawn notes to be returned to the exchequer by the deadline of September 30.

Speaking to the media, he said that the impact of the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes will be 'very very marginal' on the economy because it accounts for only 10.8 per cent of the currency in circulation.

"We have found that it is hardly being used for carrying out transactions. Therefore, economic activity will not be impacted," Shaktikanta Das said.

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As part of a clean note policy, he said, RBI has been conducting such exercise of withdrawal of currency notes from time to time, and such exercise was undertaken in 2013-14, whereby the notes which were printed prior to 2005, were withdrawn from public circulation.

It is notable that the Rs 2,000 denomination banknotes were introduced in November 2016, primarily to rapidly meet the currency requirement of the economy after the withdrawal of the legal tender status of all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation at that time.