RBI has no data on old notes used at pumps

Reply to RTI query on demonetised currencies

New Delhi, March 10: The RBI in reply to an RTI query said it has no data on the old `500 and `1,000 notes used to pay for utility bills such as fuel at petrol pumps — payments that are anonymous and are believed to have formed a good part of the demonetised currency that returned to the banking system.

After the November 8,

2016 shock decision to ban the use of old `500 and

`1,000 notes, the government had allowed the exchange of the junked notes as well as they being used for payment of utility bills for 23 services.

Both `500 and `1,000 notes could be used at government hospitals, railway ticketing, public transport, airline ticketing at airports, milk booths, crematoria/burial grounds, petrol pumps, metro rail tickets, purchase of medicines on doctor prescription from the government and private pharmacies, LPG gas cylinders, railway catering, electricity and water bills, ASI monument entry tickets and highway toll.

On November 25, 2016, the exchange of old notes was stopped and the government allowed the use of only old `500 notes at these utilities till December 15, 2016. The government, however, stopped the use of even this currency at petrol pumps and for the purchase of air tickets at airports abruptly with effect from December 2, 2016, after reports that they were becoming fronts for laundering of old currency notes.

In reply to the Right to Information (RTI) query, the RBI said: “information on (invalidated) notes used for paying utility bills is not available with us.”

As much as 99.3 per cent of the junked `500 and `1,000 notes have returned to the banking system, the RBI had stated in August last year, indicating that just a miniscule percentage of currency was left out of the system after the government's unprecedented note ban aimed at curbing black money and corruption.

Of the `15.41 lakh crore worth `500 and `1,000 notes in circulation on November 8, 2016, when the note ban was announced, currency worth `15.31 lakh crore have been returned.

The RBI also said it did not have information on the number of SBNs used to buy KYC-compliant instruments like insurance policies. The RBI referred a part of the RTI to the IRDAI which also stated that it does not have information on old notes used to pay for insurance. — PTI