Fuel, jewellery, grocery top 3 preferred items for people offloading Rs 2,000 notes: Survey

Fuel, jewellery and daily groceries are the top three preferred items for people to offload their Rs 2,000 currency notes post the RBI's announcement of withdrawing the currency note from circulation, revealed a new survey. The pan-India survey, conducted by location-based social network Public App, also found out that a whopping 55 per cent of people are planning to deposit their currency notes at the bank, while 23 per cent and 22 per cent are planning to spend them and get them exchanged, respectively.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 19 made a surprise announcement of the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes but gave the public time till September 30 to either deposit the Rs 2,000 notes in accounts or exchange them at banks.

In about two weeks, almost half of the Rs 2,000 currency notes in circulation, worth around Rs 1.8 lakh crore, came back to the banking system, the RBI informed recently.

The poll results, shedding light on the citizens' perspective and providing valuable insights into their experiences during this transition, are based on over one lakh responses across 22 states.

"In a bid to spend their Rs 2,000 currency notes, people are spending available cash on petrol and diesel, gold and jewellery, and daily groceries," said the survey.

When asked if they were facing issues while getting their notes exchanged, according to the survey, 61 per cent claimed they encountered no difficulty in the process.

It was easiest in Kerala (75 per cent), followed by Andhra Pradesh (53 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (50 per cent).

"But, 42 per cent of the respondents faced rejection from the local Public while using Rs 2,000 Banknotes despite the deadline," it said.

It also noted that where 51 per cent of respondents are of the opinion that the government should have given them more time to exchange their Rs. 2,000 notes, 44 per cent of them complained that the exchange of notes should have been higher than Rs 20,000.

People can deposit the Rs 2,000 currency note or exchange it with lower denomination currency but the exchange is allowed up to Rs 20,000 at a time.