Nearly 99.3% of demonetised money was returned, shows RBI annual report

Nearly 99.3 percent of India’s banned currency during demonetisation in November 2016 has come back to the Reserve Bank of India, says the central bank’s annual report for 2017-18.

The completion report comes after almost two years after the demonetisation was announced on November 8, 2016.

“The total value of SBNs (Specified Bank Notes) in circulation as on November 8, 2016, post verification and reconciliation, was Rs 15,417.93 billion (Rs 15.44 lakh crore). The total value of SBNs returned from circulation is Rs 15,310.73 billion (Rs 15.31 lakh crore),” RBI’s annual report said.

It said that the processing of SBNs (Specified Bank Notes) has since been completed at all centres of the Reserve Bank.

The SBNs received were verified, counted and processed in the sophisticated high-speed CVPS for accuracy and genuineness and shredded and briquetted in the Shredding and Briquetting system.

The processing capacity was augmented by resorting to night shifts (along with day shifts), working for 6 days a week, using 8 additional machines available with commercial banks and taking 7 machines on lease from vendors, the banking regulator said.

The impact of demonetisation had plunged reserve money (RM) growth into contraction till November 10, 2017. Between November 9, 2016 – the effective date of demonetisation – and December 31, 2016, the Reserve Bank pumped in 23.8 billion pieces of banknotes into circulation aggregating Rs 5,540 billion in value.

The value of banknotes in circulation increased by 37.7 percent over the year to Rs 18,037 billion (Rs 18.03 lakh crore) as at end-March 2018. The volume of banknotes increased by 2.1 percent.

In value terms, the share of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 banknotes, which had together accounted for 72.7 percent of the total value of banknotes in circulation at March-end 2017, increased to 80.2 percent as at March-end 2018.

The share of newly introduced Rs 200 banknotes in the total value of banknotes in circulation was 2.1 percent as at end-March 2018.

Compared to the previous year, there was an increase of 35 percent in counterfeit notes detected in the denomination of Rs 100, while there was a noticeable increase of 154.3 percent in counterfeit notes detected in the denomination of Rs 50.

In new series of banknotes in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 2000, counterfeit notes detected during 2017-18 were 9,892 and 17,929 as against 199 and 638, respectively, during the previous year.