MUMBAI:The nation is living with less than half the cash and currencies since the government banned high value Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 7, as significant amounts were deposited with the Reserve Bank by banks after the December 30 deadline. At the current levels, it is estimated that nearly 60% of banned notes will be replaced by the Reserve Bank of India.
Even after the deadline, Rs 40,360 crore worth of currency was submitted to RBI, taking the overall currency in circulation to Rs 8.98 lakh crore, according to the latest Reserve Bank of India data.
This is 50.04% less than the pre-ban currency levels of Rs 17.97 lakh crore as on November 4, before the note ban. This is likely to be the cash lying with banks that was submitted to RBI, say economists.
“This possibly reflects the reconciliation efforts by the Reserve Bank of India of notes received in the currency chests with physical verification” said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic advisor State Bank of IndiaBSE 1.63 %. “Going by the latest trend, nearly 41% of notes have been replaced by the Reserve Bank by December end. By end January 60% of the notes would be replaced ” said Ghosh.
The Reserve Bank in an release on January 5 had said that the figures it had released ( on banned notes) were based on aggregation of accounting entries done at the large number of currency chests all over the country. “Now that the scheme has come to an end on December 30, 2016, these figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/ possible double counts etc ” it had said in a release.
Besides, a lot of currency notes deposited with various banks have been under dispute. “ It is likely that a significant amount of money lying with banks was deposited with RBI after the December 30 deadline,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings. There is a possibility that the Rs 12.44 lakh deposit figure, released by the RBI on December 10, 2016, may also be revised.