In the next 15 days, the Reserve Bank of India will reveal the value of demonetised notes that had not been deposited during the Centre’s demonetisation drive, The Economic Times reported on Monday.
Even eight months after the note ban, the government and central bank have yet to reveal the quantum of delegalised bills that individuals and businesses neither exchanged with banks and the RBI, nor deposited. The monetary authority is planning to hold a meeting with its auditors later in July to calculate the value of the notes that were never returned, an unnamed official told The Economic Times.
In the absence of the banned notes, the RBI cannot finalise its balance sheet for the year ended June 30, 2017, now declare dividends or surplus to the government.
Currency notes in circulation are considered a liability, according to the RBI accounting policy. Every note is the RBI’s liability, though bonds and foreign exchange are treated as assets.
On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will no longer be legal tender. He had said that the move was aimed at fighting corruption, black money and counterfeiting.
The scrapping of old notes had led to a severe cash crunch in the country, as the demonetised bills had accounted for nearly 86% of the currency in circulation then.
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