As the speculation on the quantum of scrapped notes deposited in banks and post offices is mounting in various media, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said it is reconciling invalid currency with physical cash balance and will release the numbers at the earliest.
The central bank’s clarification comes in the backdrop of reports estimating that over 95 per cent of the scrapped notes have been returned till December 30. “There had been various estimates on Specified Bank Notes (SBNs) tendered 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,” the RBI said in notification.
As the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) meeting took place in the capital on Thursday, no word from came from RBI Governor Urjit Patel in this regard. The meeting was attended by all secretaries in the Finance Ministry as well as RBI chief and other financial regulators who reviewed the present status of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banks.
The central bank, however, said, now that the demonetisation scheme has come to an end on December 30 and the figures would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate accounting errors/ possible double counts.