Viral Video Falsely Claims Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal Has Banned Rs 500 and Rs 1000 Notes

Claim
Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal has banned Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
Fact
Viral claim is false.

In the wake of a huge political shake-up in Nepal after the two-day Gen Z protest, several misleading videos are going viral claiming that the Nepal government has banned the notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000.

In this context, a video claiming that newly appointed Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal has taken a bold decision of banning Rs 500 and 1000 notes is going viral on TikTok.

TikTok user @ramila_163 posted a video carrying a purported screen-grab of a social media post on the news regarding the Finance Minister’s decision to ban higher denomination notes. The video carries photos of Rs 500 and 1000 along with the photo of Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal.   The alleged news text reads, “Less than 24 hours, the Finance Minister has taken a bold decision. Notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 will be banned starting Ashoj 1 [Sept 17].”

The video posted on September 16 has garnered 7455 likes, 667 users have shared it and 368 people have commented until the last count.

 The archived version of the video can be seen here.

Newschecker found the claim to be false. 

Fact Check / Verification

To check the veracity of the claim, Newschecker looked up the mainstream media by using various relevant keywords. However, we did not find any credible news verifying that the Nepal government has decided to ban high denomination banknotes (Rs 500 and 1000).

We found an article titled ‘Calls for demonetization surge after Gen-Z protests expose hidden cash at the houses of leaders‘, dated Sept 22, posted on clickmandu online. The news article reported about the growing calls for scrapping Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes—before the upcoming elections—flooded online platforms.

Rumors of demonization have been making the rounds every once in a while in Nepal after India’s Narendra Modi administration invalidated high-denomination notes (Rs500 and Rs1000) in November 2016 to eliminate black money and counterfeit currency.

We then checked the website of Nepal’s central bank, Nepal Rastra Bank, to check the authenticity of the claim. However, we didn’t find any notice regarding the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.  We could not find any notice issued by the Ministry of Finance regarding the discontinuation of any banknotes.

See here our previous article on demonization.

Finally, we reached out to assistant spokesperson and information officer at Nepal Rastra Bank Suman Neupane, who told us that the claim is fake. “Demonetization is not an easy decision, and there has been no preparations for banning the notes,” he said to Newschecker.

Thus, our findings clearly show that the government has not issued any directive to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1000 from circulation.

Conclusion

No, Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal has not decided to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. The viral video is false.

Result: False

Sources
Clickmandu Sept 22, 2025
Nepal Rastra Bank

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