Parliament was informed on Monday that no instructions had been granted to banks regarding the filling or non-filling of Rs 2000 notes in ATMs, as lenders make their own decisions regarding the loading of cash vending machines.

According to RBI Annual Reports, the total value of Rs 500 and Rs 2000 denomination banknotes in circulation as of end-March 2017 and as of end-March 2022 was Rs 9.512 lakh crore and Rs 27.057 lakh crore, respectively, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman declared in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

Banks have not been given instructions to stop filling Rs 2000 notes in ATMs. She explained that Banks determine the amount and denominational requirements for ATMs based on past usage, consumer demand, seasonal trends, and so on."

In response to another question, the finance minister stated that the total amount of central government debt/liabilities are estimated to be around Rs 155.8 lakh crore (57.3% of GDP) as of March 31, 2023.

She stated that out of this, external debt is projected to be about Rs. 7.03 lakh crore at current exchange rates (2.6 percent of GDP).

She said, "Share of external debt is only about 4.5 percent of total debt/liabilities of the central government and less than 3 percent of GDP. External debt is mostly financed by multilateral and bilateral agencies at concessional rates. Therefore, the risk profile stands out as safe and prudent."

Moreover, she stated that the RBI, in consultation with the government, recently announced a number of measures to diversify and broaden the sources of forex funding in order to reduce exchange rate volatility and global spillovers.

Fresh FCNR(B) and NRE deposits were excluded from the current interest rate regulation (i.e., interest rates shall not be greater than those offered by the banks on equivalent domestic rupee term deposits) until October 31, 2022, as per the statement.

According to her, the all-in-cost ceiling was increased by 100 basis points in some circumstances up to December 31, 2022, and the external commercial borrowing (ECB) limit under the automatic route has been raised to USD 1.5 billion.

She said that in order to promote the expansion of Indian exports and the growing interest of the international trading community in the Indian rupee, RBI has implemented a new arrangement for exports and imports to be invoiced, paid, and settled in the rupee on July 11, 2022.