Of Rs 15.44 lakh crore of banned notes, Rs 15.28 lakh cr, or 99%, returned to the system, says RBI

Mumbai, Aug 30 (IANS) Revealing the low efficacy of last November's demonetisation of high-value currency, the RBI said on Wednesday that of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore of notes taken out of circulation, Rs 15.28 lakh crore, or almost 99 per cent, had returned to the system by way of deposits by the public.

"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 trillion," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its annual report for the last fiscal.

According to the RBI, 89 million pieces of the banned Rs 1,000 totalling Rs 8,900 crore had not been returned (by March 2017) out of 6,858 million such notes amounting to Rs 6.85 lakh crore. Thus the figure not returned till end March amounted to a mere 1.3 per cent of Rs 1,000 notes in circulation before the demonetisation announcement on November 8, 2016.

On that day total currency in circulation stood at Rs 17.97 lakh crore, of which 86 per cent, or Rs 15.44 lakh crore, was scrapped by demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

The central bank did not provide separate figures in respect of the banned Rs 500 notes which had not returned.

In the report on fake Indian currency notes (FICA), RBI said the past fiscal had yielded 7,62,072 pieces of FICN, which was higher than the 6,32,926 such notes seized in 2015-16.

The RBI also said that the value of banknotes in circulation declined by 20.2 percent during the year to Rs 13.1 lakh crore, reflecting the impact of demonetisation.

The volume of banknotes, however, increased by 11.1 per cent, mainly owing to greater infusion of lower denomination banknotes in circulation following the demonetisation.

The share of Rs 2,000 banknotes in the total value of banknotes in circulation was 50.2 per cent at end-March 2017.

The RBI spent Rs 7,965 crore on printing new currency notes in 2016-17.