RBI has not asked banks to stop disbursing ₹500 notes; viral claim is false

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu recently called for the demonetisation of Rs. 500 notes and further promotion of digital payments. He said that such a step would help curb corruption and increase transparency in financial transactions.

Against this backdrop, in a video report by YouTube channel Capital TV, its editor-in-chief Manish Kumar praised the BJP government and accused the Opposition of having links with corrupt individuals. He claimed that bundles of Rs. 500 notes had been recovered from the homes of corrupt politicians. The report further mentioned that following Chandrababu Naidu’s demand to ban Rs. 500 notes, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued a notification directing 75% of all ATMs to reduce their stock of Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 notes and those of smaller denominations by September 2025, and 90% of all ATMs to do so by March 2026.

In another report by Capital TV, Kumar claimed that the RBI had stopped the printing of Rs. 500 notes. He stated that by March 2026, the Rs. 500 note would be abolished like the Rs. 2,000 rupee note.

Verified X User CA Anupam Sharma along with other users such as AK Mandhan and CA Paaras Gangwal also claimed that the RBI had planned to remove Rs. 500 notes from ATMs by September 2025 and going forward, only Rs. 200 and Rs. 100 notes would be dispensed from ATMs.

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We received multiple requests to verify this claim on the Alt News WhatsApp helpline.

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Fact Check

To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, Alt News reviewed all recent press releases and notifications issued by RBI on its official website. We did not find any information to support the claim that it had directed banks not to dispense Rs. 500 notes through ATMs.

However, during our investigation, we came across a notification issued by the RBI on April 28, 2025, which stated that in an effort to increase public access to banknotes of most used denominations, the Reserve Bank of India had directed banks and White Label ATM Operators (WLAO) to ensure that ATMs dispensed Rs. 100 or Rs. 200 denomination notes. In the first phase, by September 30, 2025, 75% of all ATMs would dispense bank notes of Rs. 100 or Rs. 200 denomination from at least one cassette, while in the second phase, i.e. by March 31, 2026, the target has been set to increase this figure to 90%.

It is worth noting that a ‘cassette’ in an ATM is a box or container in which currency notes of only a specific denomination (such as Rs 100, 200, 500) are kept.

The Economic Times reported on April 28, 2025 that the Reserve Bank of India had asked banks and WLAOs to ensure that Rs. 100 or 200 notes were dispensed from ATMs, to increase the availability of these notes to the public. In other words, the RBI has not directed all banks to stop dispensing Rs. 500 notes from ATMs by September 30, 2025. It has only directed banks and WLAOs to increase dispensation of Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 notes.

Apart from this, the claim made by Capital TV editor-in-chief Manish Kumar regarding the RBI issuing a notification asking ATM machines to stock Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 notes following Chandrababu Naidu’s demand to ban Rs. 500 notes is also false. This is because the RBI issued the notification on April 28, while Naidu had spoken about this at the annual Mahanadu Sabha held from May 27 to May 29.

PIB Fact Check also posted on X and clarified that the viral claim regarding the RBI banning Rs. 500 notes by March 2026 was false. It clarified that the RBI had not made any such announcement and Rs. 500 notes had not been banned. It also advised the public to avoid such false and misleading news updates.

To sum up, many users including a YouTube channel named Capital TV made false claims on social media about the RBI banning Rs. 500 notes.

The post RBI has not asked banks to stop disbursing ₹500 notes; viral claim is false appeared first on Alt News.

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