Rs 500 notes to be discontinued? PIB debunks false claims

The Indian government has dismissed false claims circulating on social media claiming that ₹500 currency note will be discontinued by next year.

A YouTube video claiming that Rs 500 currency notes will be withdrawn by the year 2026 has been picking up for the last few days, causing panic and confusion among the public. The Centre, however, has refuted the 'false' statement, saying that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made no such statement.

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The clip, uploaded by a YouTube Channel 'Capital TV' on June 2, said that the Rs 500 banknotes will begin to discontinue from March next year. The video, which is almost 12 minutes in length, has garnered more than five lakh views.

"Rs 500 notes have NOT been discontinued and remain legal tender," the Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check division - the Indian government's official fact-checking agency, wrote in a post on X.

It also advised citizens not to fall for misinformation. "Always verify news from official sources before believing or sharing it," it said.

The current ₹500 notes continue to have their amount written in 17 languages, like all the other notes in circulation. These languages include English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had demonetised the previous ₹500 notes, along with the ₹1000 notes, in a televised address on November 8, 2016. The government had billed it as a measure to fight corruption in the country and address the issue of counterfeit banknotes.

The RBI had also introduced the new ₹2,000 currency note during the demonetisation exercise. However, those notes were withdrawn from circulation in May 2023. Despite being withdrawn, the ₹2000 notes remain legal tender.