Will the Rs 500 Note Be Discontinued by 2026? Here’s What the Government Says

The Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) Fact Check unit has refuted viral claims that the Rs 500 currency note will be phased out by March 2026. The clarification came in response to a YouTube video uploaded by the channel ‘CAPITAL TV’, which falsely claimed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to withdraw Rs 500 notes from circulation.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), PIB Fact Check stated:

“A #YouTube video on the YT Channel ‘CAPITAL TV’ (capitaltvind) falsely claims that the RBI will discontinue the circulation of ₹500 notes by March 2026. The RBI has made NO such announcement. ₹500 notes have NOT been discontinued and remain legal tender.”

Furthermore, the bureau also urged citizens to avoid falling for such misinformation and to verify any such claims from official government or RBI sources before sharing them.

This clarification is part of PIB’s ongoing efforts to curb fake news and prevent the spread of financial misinformation through social media platforms and digital content creators.

It may be recalled that The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had decided to withdraw Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation on May 19, 2023, However, it figured that but despite these notes are still in circulation.

Initially, when the announcement was made in 2023, Rs 2,000 bank notes worth Rs 3.56 lakh crore was in circulation. This figure had dropped as of May 31, 2025 to just Rs 6,181 crore. This means 98.26% of the notes have already been returned to the banking system.