Government has more than adequate notes of Rs 2,000 in the system, clarified Subhash Chandra Garg, economic affairs secretary after a report by The Print claimed that the centre had stopped the printing of Rs 2,000 notes in order to stop their circulation.

Garg added that no decision was taken regarding the production of the note anytime recently.

Printing of notes is planned as per the projected requirement. We have more than adequate notes of Rs 2000 in the system with over 35% of notes by value in circulation being of Rs 2000. There has been no decision regarding 2000 rupee note production recently.

— Subhash Chandra Garg (@SecretaryDEA) January 4, 2019

The Print report on Thursday claimed that the decision of stopping the printing process was taken on the back of suspicion that Rs 2,000 note was being used for hoarding, tax evasion and money laundering.

However, the online portal's request for RBI's comment went unanswered, the report added.

The Rs 2,000 note was introduced in November 2016, after the government demonetised Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations as part of an exercise pitched as a crackdown on black money.

The total value of the currency in circulation was Rs 18.03 lakh crore, of which Rs 6.73 lakh crore, or 37 percent, was in Rs 2,000 notes, and Rs 7.73 lakh crore, approximately 43 percent, was in Rs 500 notes till March 2018. The remaining was in the lower denominations.

First Published:Jan 3, 2019 4:44 PM IST