Government rapidly completing remonetisation: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the government was in the process of rapidly completing the remonetisation exercise.The new currency notes would soon arrive in large number, he said. “With remonetisation, our strategy is to move to a low cash economy,” the finance minister said.

Jaitley further said the high denomination currency increased to 80% from 36% of the total currency in circulation between 2004 and 2014.After the demonetisation move was announced on November 8, banks across the country have issued currency notes worth Rs 4.61 lakh crore to people through ATMs or over



their counters. Over 200 crore pieces of this has been in small denominations of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100.

Jaitley said the Reserve Bank of India will inject a significant amount in the next three weeks. He said demonetisation, together with other reforms, particularly the GST and the restrictions on cash spending subjected to PAN declaration, will bring down tax evasion and the levels of corruption in society.

The government had announced demonetisation on November 8 by removing Rs 14 lakh crore or 86% of the currency (in value terms) from the system overnight.