Demonetisation achieved its objectives quite substantially: Economic Affairs Secretary

The government today said demonetization of high-value currency notes in November 2016 achieved the objectives "quite substantially", even as the RBI report outlined that 99.3 percent of junked notes came back to banks.

Talking to reporters here, Economic Affairs Secretary S C Garg said objectives of the note ban, like checking black money, terror financing, promoting digital transaction and weeding out fake currency notes have been achieved.

"I think demonetization has achieved its objective quite substantially," he said in reply to a question in this regard.

According to the RBI's annual report released today, as much as 99.3 percent of the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes have returned to the banking system.

The secretary also stressed that now there was no shortage of currency in any part of the country.

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the demonetization of high-value currency notes.

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

This meant just Rs 10,720 crore of the junked currency did not return to the banking system.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)