RBI spent about Rs 5,000 crore on printing new Rs 500 notes: MoS Finance

Introduction of this new currency and design has been brought in considering various factors like ease of transaction for common man, replacement of soiled banknotes, inflation and the need for combating counterfeiting.

Representational image of Rs 500 denomination currency note. Image Source: IANS

Nearly Rs 5,000 crore were spent on printing of new Rs 500 currency notes since the time demonetisation drive took place in India.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Finance, P Radhakrishnan, said that as many as 1,695.7 crore pieces of Rs 500 denomination note were printed till December 8, valuing up to Rs 4,968.84 crore.

Further, the minister informed that 365.4 crore pieces of Rs 2,000 notes were printed by RBI costing about Rs 1,293.6 crore till December 08, 2017.

The minister also spoke on the newly introduced currency notes namely Rs 50 and Rs 200, adding that about 178 crore pieces of Rs 200 notes have been printed totalling up to Rs 522.83 crore.

Similarly, Rs 522.83 crore have been spent on printing of 178 crore pieces of Rs 200 notes.

On August 25, the RBI issued a new currency of Rs 200 denomination bank notes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. This came in right after when, the central bank revamped the existing Rs 50 notes in new variant.

Introduction of this new currency and design has been brought in considering various factors like ease of transaction for common man, replacement of soiled banknotes, inflation and the need for combating counterfeiting.

Now in India, we have currency denominations of Rs 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, Rs 200, 500 and 2000.

Replying to another question, the minister also highlighted about the RBI's surplus transferred to the government during previous financial year (FY17).

"The surplus transferred from the RBI to the government has declined by Rs 35,217 crore in 2016 -17 mainly on account of increase in expenditure on printing of currency notes," he was quoted as saying by the PTI report.

During fiscal 2015-16, the RBI had transferred Rs 65,876 crore as surplus to the government. The amount reduced to Rs 30,659 crore in 2016-17.

Lastly, the minister stated that subject to future corrections, based on verification process, the estimated value of Specified Bank Notes (scrapped currency) received as on June 30, 2017 is Rs 15.28 lakh crore.