The Reserve Bank of India said Rs 15.28 lakh crore – or 99% – of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore demonetized in November 2018 have been deposited with the banks. This would mean there was hardly any black money in the monetary system and belies the government’s hopes of getting out of circulation several thousands of crores worth of demonetized currency. The RB said it annual report the number of returned notes does not include the money collected by district central cooperative banks and the notes deposited by citizens and financial institutions in Nepal, which are likely to be accepted. The annual report also stated that some of the returned money is still lying uncounted in currency chests. It said till such time these notes are processed by the RBI for their numerical accuracy and authenticity, only an estimation of specified banknotes received back is possible. The aim of unearthing fake currency too seems to have not given the result as the report said only 3.7 lakh pieces of Rs 500 fake notes (old design) were detected and in the case of Rs 1,000, currency notes 2.56 lakh pieces were detected.
