Still verifying returned notes, RBI says

At least 66 sophisticated machines were being used to count junked Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes

Nearly a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation, the Rs500 and Rs1,000 bills returned to banks are still being “processed in all earnest” through a sophisticated currency-verification system, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said.

In reply to a right to information (RTI) query, the central bank said it has processed about 11.34 billion Rs500 notes and 5.249 billion junked Rs1,000 bills, with a face value of Rs5.67 trillion and Rs5.24 trillion respectively, as of September 30. The combined value of the processed notes is Rs109.1 billion approximately, according to the reply.

Double shift

“Specified bank notes are being processed in all earnest in double shift on all available machines [sophisticated counting machines],” the RBI said in reply to the RTI query filed by a PTI correspondent.

The central bank was asked to provide details of demonetised notes counted so far.

Replying to a question on providing the deadline for completing the counting exercise, it said, “The verification of notes withdrawn from the circulation is an ongoing process”.

Several opposition parties including the Congress and Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress have announced that they would observe November 8, the first anniversary of demonetisation, as ‘Black Day’ and would hold protests across the country.

To counter the opposition protest, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to observe the note ban anniversary as “anti-black money day”.