Clearing the air around the rumors of cash shortage, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has enough currency for circulation. He said there was full preparedness to deal with currency shortages post demonetization and added that taking advance printing and current printing together, the RBI has been maintaining the money stock and even today, the RBI has more than adequate stock, not only to last them till December 30, but to last them far beyond that.
Minister further said that there was not a single day when RBI had not released adequate currency to banks. There was a certain level of currency that was to be released and there was full preparedness for it. Talking about the currency in circulation, Jaitley said that the government was not releasing data regarding the currency in circulation due to the inaccuracy of double counting. The currency which got printed might have gone to Post Offices and from there to banks and again back to currency chests so there could be double counting and scope for inaccuracies, so they do not want to guess the figures.
Jaitley also said that post demonetisation payments through credit and debit cards and e-wallets have increased significantly and many industries have shown a growth in digital payments by 300-1,500 percent. Meanwhile, RBI deputy governor said that all ATMs have been recalibrated and economic affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das assured that currency supply situation has improved considerably.
