Government on job, no cash crisis: FM Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was fully prepared to deal with currency shortages, claiming that central bank had enough in its chests to last “far beyond” December 30 when the government’s demonetisation drive ends.

He said that there was not a single day when the RBI did not release adequate currency to banks across the country. In sharp contrast, two top national associations of bank officers and employees sought security for themselves, and suspension of all cash transactions till a crippling currency crunch, triggered by the government’s November 8 move to scrap high-value bills, was over.

The minister said figures on currency in circulation would be made public only after December 30, the last date for depositing the scrapped currency in banks. “The currency that was printed might have gone to post offices and from there to banks and again back to currency chests. So there could be double counting and some scope for inaccuracies,” he said.

The bankers have also sought a probe into rising cash seizures across India despite a currency crunch since the demonetisation announcement to fight black money and fake currency, and said their units in all major centres would demonstrate on Dec. 28

On December 15, the Supreme Court also asked the government to explain how some people were getting lakhs in new currency, while ordinary people were not able to withdraw the promised sum of `24,000 a week.

On Tuesday itself, angry customers pelted stones at an SBI branch in UP’s Muzaffarnagar. This was after an angry group vandalised a UP Gramin Bank branch in the state’s Shamli district and irate cashless people attacked banks at two places in Gujarat on Monday.

Meanwhile, former finance minister P. Chidambaram termed new restrictions on deposits of old currency notes over Rs 5,000 “desperate measures of a desperate  government”, and said hoarders have laundered their money, while the poor and the middle class have been left high and dry.

On Monday, the government tightened deposit rules, saying people can bank more than Rs 5,000 of old notes only once between now and December 30, subject to questioning and a satisfactory explanation later.

“Old notes usable until Dec. 15. Why can’t we deposit remaining notes until Dec 30 as notified?,” tweeted Mr Chidambaram. After Mr Jaitley clarified that no questions would be  asked if any amount of junked currency was deposited in one go, but repeated deposits may raise queries, Mr Chidambaram said, “RBI makes new rules on deposits, FM contradicts. Who should citizens believe? Neither has credibility. Hoarders have laundered their old notes. The poor and middle class left high and dry.”

Mr Chidambaram had on Monday hit out at RBI governor Urjit Patel, saying that he was “extremely disappointed” that the central bank chief did not handle the demonetisation issue as any “independent autonomous institution should have”.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said that the RBI changes rules like "Modiji changes clothes..."

"He keeps changing his statements .His words don’t carry weight," Mr Gandhi said.