New delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said there is no proposal to withdraw the Rs. 2,000 denomination notes that were introduced post demonetisation.
“There is no proposal to withdraw the Rs. 2,000 denomination banknote,” the minister said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Mr Jaitley further said the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes returned to currency chests of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) amounted to Rs. 12.44 lakh crore (as on December 10, 2016).
“The data obtained in this regard would need to be reconciled with the physical cash balances to eliminate counterfeit notes, accounting errors and possible double counts after which only the final figures will be arrived at,” he said.
He added that as on March 3, 2017, Rs. 12 lakh crore currency is currently in circulation. As on January 27, the currency circulation was Rs. 9.921 lakh crore.
Mr Jaitley said the cash recall seeks to create a new “normal” wherein the GDP will be bigger, cleaner and real. “This exercise is part of the government’s resolve to eliminate corruption, blackmoney, counterfeit currency and terror funding,” he said.
“This exercise has resulted in an increase in deposits with banks. This will facilitate reduction of interest rates and provide more headroom to banks to expand their credit base,” the minister added.
Following demonetisation, several restrictions were imposed on withdrawal from banks as well as ATMs. The notes were introduced along with new denomination notes of Rs. 500, following the withdrawal of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes from November 9, 2016.
The restrictions have been gradually removed.
PTI