The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that it still does not know the exact number of junked currency notes that were in circulation and it is still reconciling the number of notes that were deposited back. RBI in written reply to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to the question of total number of the scrapped currency deposited in banks after November 8, is understood to have informed that the exchange of the currency took place at thousands of bank branches and post offices over the 50 days demonetisation period. The collected notes were deposited in 4,000 currency chests and it is pending finalisation as of now, as physical verification and reconciliation are underway.
RBI further informed the panel that its Board meeting which recommended withdrawal of legal tender of Rs 500/1000 notes was held on November 8 at 5.30 pm. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced about the demonetisation in his address to the nation at 8 pm on the same day after Cabinet's approval. The Members of Parliament in the PAC were also informed by the RBI that the matter related to demonetisation was under discussion between the government and the RBI for some months.
Earlier, briefing the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance about demonetisation, the Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel has said that discussions between the central bank and the government over the demonetisation issue began in early 2016. He also said that about Rs 9.2 lakh crore have been reintroduced in the economy since the old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes were demonetised on November 8, 2016.
