The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will take more time to reveal how much of the demonetised currency notes have come back to the banking system. Reason for the wait: absence of adequate counting machines.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will take more time to reveal how much of the demonetised currency notes have come back to the banking system. Reason for the wait: absence of adequate counting machines.
The RBI governor Urjit Patel informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that the central bank is trying to get counting machines to speed up counting of the old demonetized notes that came back to it via banks and its own counters, a member who attended the meeting told DNA Money.
In a meeting that lasted for three hours, Patel told the panel that the counting process is still underway. This process is time consuming as every note has to ascertained for its genuineness. RBI is still trying to reconcile the data and matching it with the banks figures, he further stated.
Patel, who met the panel along with the four deputy governors, was unable to tell the committee members the exact number of notes returned to the banking system despite the fact that banks had submitted their data in January 2017 itself.
The issue, according to banking sources, is not just counting machines that RBI is grappling with, but also adequate manpower to complete the task. The prohibitive prices of the counting is also another reason why RBI has not been able to get more machines. RBI is counting the packets that came from each bank separately. In case of fake currency, the notes have to be returned to the respective banks.
According to banking sources, the old currency is still lying in the currency chests of the banks. Storage of the old currency until all the notes are counted and accounted for is also another big task.
Many of the panel members were dissatisfied with the responses. "The governor was not forthcoming with his replies even though the whole nation is waiting to know how much of the black money was unearthed through the exercise," said a member of the committee who attended the meeting.
Besides demonetization, they also discussed about the non-performing assets (NPAs) growth in the economy and the Cryto currency.
On the NPA issue, the governor said that the RBI through NPA ordinance has got more powers to resolve the bad debt problem plaguing the banking system. Patel was also optimistic about the growth of the Indian economy. He told the members that the economy would grow by 6.6% in 2017-18 and then by 7.4% in the 2018-19.
The high value currency notes of 500- and 1,000-denominated worth around Rs 15.4 lakh crore were removed from circulation after November 8 though an announcement made by prime minister Narendra Modi.
The Committee, headed by former Union minister and senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily had summoned the RBI governor to clarify doubts about demonetization. This is the second time Patel is appearing before the panel where former prime minister Manmohan Singh is also a member.
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