The volume of banknotes increased by 11.1 percent, mainly due to higher infusion of banknotes of lower denomination in circulation following demonetisation
As much as Rs 15.28 lakh crore out of Rs 15.44 lakh crore of the scrapped currency has come back, the Reserve Bank of India said on Wednesday.
RBI released its annual report 2017 which said that the volume of notes in circulation continued to increase till November 8, 2016 when the government notified that banknotes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations of the existing series shall cease to be legal tender with effect from November 9, 2016.
The report said that simultaneously, a new series (Mahatma Gandhi New Series) of banknotes of a different size and design, highlighting the cultural heritage and scientific achievements of the country, was introduced. In view of the withdrawal of legal tender character of nearly 86 percent of value of notes in circulation on November 8, 2016, the focus of the Reserve Bank subsequently shifted to making available banknotes generated from printing presses to currency chests and from there to bank branches and ATMs in the shortest possible time.
This process was facilitated by air lifting of notes as also direct remittances from the presses to currency chests wherever feasible and adopting a hub and spoke model of distribution.
As a result, during a short span from November 9 to December 31, 2016, the Reserve Bank pumped in 23.8 billion pieces of bank notes into circulation aggregating Rs 5,540 billion in value. The pace of remonetisation continued ceaselessly thereafter also and the notes in circulation (NiC) as on March 31, 2017 increased close to 74 percent of the NiC prevailing on November 4, 2016.
RBI said that sustained efforts were made towards indigenisation of banknotes production along with enhanced security features during the year. The Bank Note Paper Mill at Mysuru started commercial production. Efforts towards a greenfield project for production of security inks were also undertaken.
The report went on to say that the value of banknotes in circulation declined by 20.2 percent over the year to Rs 13,102 billion as at end-March 2017. The volume of banknotes, however, increased by 11.1 per cent, mainly due to higher infusion of banknotes of lower denomination in circulation following the demonetisation. In value terms, the share of Rs 500 and above banknotes, which had together accounted for 86.4 percent of the total value of banknotes in circulation at end-March 2016, stood at 73.4 per cent at end-March 2017.
The share of newly introduced Rs 2000 banknotes in the total value of banknotes in circulation was 50.2 percent at end-March 2017. In volume terms, Rs 10 and Rs 100 banknotes constituted 62.0 percent of total banknotes in circulation at end-March 2017 as compared with 53.0 per cent at end-March 2016.
