After RBI on Wednesday released the annual data for the year FY 16-17, former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram launched a strong attack against RBI. Taking to Twitter, Chidambaram wrote, “Rs 16000 cr out of demonetised notes of Rs 1544,000 cr did not come back to RBI. That is 1%. Shame on RBI which ‘recommended’ demonetisation.” Continuing his attack, he wrote, “RBI ‘gained’ Rs 16000 crore, but ‘lost’ Rs 21000 crore in printing new notes! The economists deserve Nobel Prize.” The ex finance minister in his another tweet asked, “99% notes legally exchanged! Was demonetisation a scheme designed to convert black money into white?”
All but 1.4 per cent of the old Rs 1,000 notes have come back into the banking system post demonetisation, the Reserve Bank said on Wednesday after releasing its annual report for 2016-17. In the report, the RBI said that out of 632.6 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 currency notes in circulation, 8.9 crore have not been returned post the note ban last November.
Rs 16000 cr out of demonetised notes of Rs 1544,000 cr did not come back to RBI. That is 1%. Shame on RBI which ‘recommended’ demonetisation
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 30, 2017
RBI ‘gained’ Rs 16000 crore, but ‘lost’ Rs 21000 crore in printing new notes! The economists deserve Nobel Prize.
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 30, 2017
99% notes legally exchanged! Was demonetisation a scheme designed to convert black money into white?
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 30, 2017
RBI said there were as many 588.2 crore of Rs 500 notes, both old and new in circulation as of March 31, 2017. As of March 31, 2016, there were 1,570.7 crore Rs 500 notes in circulation.
The RBI report further said that the cost of printing of currency notes more than doubled to Rs 7,965 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 3,421 crore in the previous year on account of new currency printing.