Urjit Patel. File photoNew Delhi: Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel on Wednesday told a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that Rs 9.2 lakh crore of new currency notes have been put in circulation since the high-value currency notes were demonetized on November 8.
"When asked how much had been remonetized, he (Patel) replied that more than nine lakh crore has been remonetized," Trinamool MP and Standing Committee on Finance member Saugata Roy said after panel met with the RBI governor.
"The governor explained that the government had advised the RBI to consider demonetizing high currency notes. The board had a discussion and took the decision," Roy said.
"When asked how much of the total demonetized currency returned to the bank, he said he could not give the figure right now as the process was still on," he added.
The opposition member of Parliament said governor Patel was also unable to tell the panel when the system will be normal. “The RBI officials were defensive," he said.
Secretaries of all departments in the Union finance ministry as well as bank associations' representatives were present at the meeting of the committee headed by Congress MP Veerappa Moily.
On November 8, prime minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetization of high-value currency notes, saying the move was aimed against black money, counterfeit currency and terror funding.
The RBI has still not declared how much of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore in banned notes has been returned to the banks.
Prior to this, an estimate of new notes could only be gleaned from the RBI's weekly figures on "currency in circulation".
The first time the RBI spoke of a break-up of new notes was on December 7 during the monetary policy press conference. Deputy governor R. Gandhi said that a total of Rs 4 lakh crore in new notes had been circulated till December 6, of which 19.1 billion notes (which amounts to Rs 1.06 lakh crore) were in small denominations of up to Rs 100 and the rest (Rs 2.94 lakh crore) were in high denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000.
On December 19, the RBI again gave a figure of new notes circulated. It said 20.4 billion small denominations (up to Rs 100) and 2.2 billion of high denominations (Rs 500 and Rs 2,000) had been circulated. This was equivalent to a total of Rs 5.93 lakh crore.
Congress seeks Patel's resignation
The Congress on Wednesday held nation-wide protests against "poor implementation" of demonetization and gheraoed RBI offices in different state capitals demanding restoration of the apex bank's autonomy and resignation of RBI governor Urjit Patel.
In Mumbai, several Congress leaders were detained from outside Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, where they were scheduled to hold demonstrations at the Reserve Bank of India office.
But they moved their agitation to the railway station after the Mumbai Police denied them permission to hold protests outside the RBI office.
"We have submitted a memorandum at the RBI's headquarters in Mumbai. We demand restoration of the RBI's autonomy," Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.
In a memorandum submitted to the governor, deputy governors and Central Board of Directors of the RBI, the Congress alleged that RBI's autonomy and statutory powers have been subjugated and compromised.
