No speculation on deposits, says RBI

New Delhi: Amid reports that 97 per cent of demonetised currency has been deposited, the Reserve Bank on Thursday said that it is physically accounting for all old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 deposited with banks till December 30 to remove errors and without the process being completed any estimate will be incorrect.

“RBI has already initiated this process and till this is completed any estimate may not indicate the actual numbers of the SBNs (demonetised currency) that have been returned,” said RBI.

Last month RBI had said that Rs 12.4 lakh crore had been deposited in banks in scrapped currency notes till December 10. However, the finance ministry had asked RBI to re-verify the figures as it may be double counting in some instances.

RBI said on Thursday that there had been various estimates on junked currency tendered with banks in certain sections. “We would like to clarify that the periodical SBN figures released by us 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,” said the central bank.

RBI said that it was taking all steps to complete the process expeditiously so as to release firm figures of demonetised currency received at an early date.

RBI has also been receiving flak from critics for not releasing figures as to how much demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency has been deposited with the banks after December 30 deadline. A news report on Wednesday had claimed that people have deposited nearly 97 per cent demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency till December 30 which would mean that government may not realise huge bonanza.

Banks have received Rs 14.97 lakh crore ($220 billion) of the demonetised currency as of December 30, according  to the news agency report quoting government sources.