RBI report on demonetisation: The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday released its annual report. The central bank has revealed that only Rs 16,050 crore out of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore of the scrapped higher denomination notes have not returned back into the banking system and therefore remain missing or unaccounted for. Now this data has raised a few questions about the overall gains and the impact on the economy, especially the informal sector, because of the disruption it caused, Indian Express reported today.
Here are key points
The RBI data shows that the amount of unaccounted money, which was held in cash by those who were trying to conceal it, was small, according to IE report.
The government had expected that a significant amount of unaccounted money in cash held by people would not come back to the banking system.
The data also shows that notes worth only Rs 16,000 crore were not returned since the value of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation was Rs 15.44 lakh crore on the day demonetisation was announced.
The Centre after announcing the demonetisation, had said the move was necessary to check counterfeit notes as one of the reasons for the move. On Wednesday, the RBI reported that detection of counterfeit notes was 20.4 per cent higher than the previous year.
The value of the fake demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in 2016-17 was Rs 41 crore — a figure which is bound draw flak from the opposition, the IE report says.
“Until June 30, 2017, SBNs (special bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000) were received by the Reserve Bank either directly or from bank branches/post offices through the currency chest mechanism. Some of these SBNs are still lying in the currency chests,” the RBI annual report stated. Subject to future corrections based on verification process when completed, the estimated value of SBNs received as on June 30, 2017 is Rs 15.28 lakh crore, the report says.
