Two days after announcing a ban on the Rs 1000 note, the government today announced that the high denomination currency note will make a comeback, albeit with a new design and enhanced security features.
Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das today said that Rs 1,000 notes will be introduced in a few months.
"All denomition of notes will be re-introduced with new design and new features," he said.
The announcement comes two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a surprising move to fight the menace of black money and fake currency, scrapped 500, 1000-rupee notes on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, long queues were seen outside banks across the country and also at RBI counters for replacement of old Rs 500 and 1,000 notes as banks opened today after demonetisation of such bills by the government.
Following the decision, banks were shut yesterday to stock lower denomination cash and new security-featured Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes.
Banks have made additional arrangements for exchanging cash and deposit of old high denomination notes in order to handle heavy rush.
Banks have also been asked to be open on weekends including Sunday to deal with the situation.
It may be noted that ATMs are not functional today.
In order to meet the demand of new currency notes, the government has imposed a limit on withdrawal of Rs 10,000 per day and Rs 20,000 per week. This limit, however, will be increased in the coming days.
The currency notes of lower denomination of Rs 100 and Rs 50 will continue to be the legal tender, he said, adding the Reserve Bank will come out with new series of such notes with new design and added security features.
The Reserve Bank, time and again, has been introducing new series of currency notes with new design and enhanced security features.
The new Rs 500 banknotes have extra security features besides having peculiar colour, theme and size which differentiate the new bills from the earlier series.
The Rs 2,000 notes, which are being introduced for the first time, will be of magenta colour with Mangalayan imprinted on the reverse side. The higher value currency notes will have other designs, geometric patterns aligning with the overall colour scheme both on the obverse and reverse.
The new denomination has motif of the Mangalayan on the reverse, depicting the country's first venture in interplanetary space.
The Rs 500 banknotes will be stone grey in color with a predominant new theme of the Indian heritage site Red Fort.
The RBI is introducing new design banknotes in the denomination of Rs 2,000 as part of Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series.
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