99％ banned currency notes returned, says Reserve Bank of India

By APD Writer Rishika Chauhan

NEW DELHI, August 31 (APD)— According to Reserve Bank of India’s annual report released on Wednesday, 99% of the currency notes banned in November last year, have found their way into the system.

“Subject to future corrections based on verification process when completed, the estimated value of the banned notes received was 15.28 trillion rupees. This compares with the 15.44 trillion rupees of the banned notes that were in circulation as of November 8, before demonetization”, said Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials.

This development has caused concern, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken the decision to demonetize high-value currency notes, to check corruption and black money in the country.

Earlier, attorney general Mukul Rohatgi had said that black money, around 4 to 5 trillion rupees, would probably not find its way back into the system. However, since 99% of the money is back in circulation, this means that the tax evaders, who were holding black money, were able to find a way to change their unaccounted money.

Following the release of RBI data showing that most of the money has returned to the system, the opposition parties criticised the government, stressing that demonetization had “utterly failed” in India.

Nevertheless, the finance minister Arun Jaitley explained that on the basis of how much cash returned into the system, the success of demonetization could not be measured.

“The fact that the entire demonetized money has come back shows black money has been accounted for completely. In that sense, demonetization has been a success,” said R Gandhi, former deputy governor of RBI.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)