The Reserve Bank of India has injected Rs 9.2 lakh cr ($135.21 billion) worth of new currency notes into the banking system to help replace the notes banned in November, a parliamentary source quoted central bank governor Urjit Patel as saying on Wednesday.
Patel met a parliamentary panel on finance on Wednesday to answer questions about the country’s recent move to abolish 500 and 1,000 rupees notes, or 86% of the currency then in circulation, in a bid to unearth billions of dollars of unaccounted money.
About Rs 15.4 lakh crore worth 500 and 1,000 rupees notes were removed from circulation after the Nov. 8 announcement from the government.
Patel is learnt to have told the parliamentary panel on demonetisation that discussions between the central bank and the government on the process began early last year.
Congress members of the committee asked questions like whose decision was it to withdraw high currency notes and also about autonomy of RBI, sources said.
Senior bureaucrats, including Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikant Das, Banking Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, and top bank honchos like Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank and Usha Ananthasubramanian of Punjab National Bank are also to appear before the committee headed by Congress leader Veerappa Moily.
The RBI Governor is also scheduled to appear before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on the same issue on January 20.
