Digital rupee in circulation at Rs 16.39 cr in 2022-23, shows RBI data

e-rupee-rep

The digital rupee or E-Rupee in wholesale and retail in circulation stood at Rs 16.39 crore as at end of financial year 2022-23, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy 2022-23.

Rs 500 notes of e-rupee have major share in circulation, which is followed by Rs 200 notes and Rs 100 notes, data showed.

Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy 2022-23 is a major economic and financial indicators relating to the Indian economy.

According to the data, Rs 2.71 crore worth of Rs 500 notes in e-rupee is in circulation, which is followed by Rs 1.16 crore of Rs 200, and Rs 0.83 crore of Rs 100.

It further added, Rs 0.39 crore of Rs 50 notes, Rs 0.23 crore of Rs 20 notes and Rs 0.15 crore of Rs 10 notes.

Between 50 paise to Rs 5 notes, the data shows that Rs 5 notes in circulation is Rs 0.12 crore, Rs 2 notes of Rs 0.06 crore, and Rs 1 and 50 paise were Rs 0.04 crore and Rs 0.01 crore, respectively.

Last year, the central bank rolled out pilot testing of CBDC in wholesale as well as retail segment.

With both wholesale and retail pilots live in the country, the RBI has joined 17 other central banks including those of China and South Korea whose pilots are underway.

On September 14, the RBI Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar said around 15,000 transactions are taking place in a day in the pilot testing of retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

“It is roughly around 15,000 transactions a day or so, we will have to take it to one million,” Sankar said on the sidelines of the Global SME Finance Forum 2023.

Sankar said the central bank aims to scale this up to one million transactions a day.

On the other hand, the central bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on September 6 said the central bank is planning to test some more use cases in the wholesale pilot of CBDC.

The central bank has launched the wholesale pilot of the CBDC on November 1, 2022, to settle the settle secondary market transactions in government securities.