RBI will take time to count scrapped notes deposited in banks: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the RBI is in the process of counting scrapped currency notes and will come out with the final figures once the fake notes were weeded out.

Answering oft-repeated questions over the issue, he said in the Lok Sabha that the Reserve Bank had received the last tranche of scrapped currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 only in July and the central bank would take time in counting the billions of notes.

On November 8 last year, the government had scrapped high denomination currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 which



amounted to around 86 per cent of the currency in circulation. 

Replying to a discussion on supplementary demands for grants in the Lok Sabha, Jaitley said one of the major benefits of demonetisation was squeezing of funds for terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir and naxalites in Chhattisgarh.

On questions regarding the amount of scrapped currency deposited back in the banks, the finance minister said, "Today they (RBI) have to count every currency note. They have to take the fake currency out...That exercise the RBI is taken to a very advanced level."