For the first time, the Reserve Bank of India has not released a balance sheet for the week ending June 30, making it difficult to gauge the impact of demonetisation.
The Economic Times reports that the amount of currency currently in circulation figures prominently on the list of liabilities on the balance sheet. June 30 is the day that the central bank officially closes its accounting year with a statistic supplement.
“The currency in circulation is a major liability on the central bank's balance sheet. They are mandated to be put in public domain as these (the central bank's accounts) are part of the public account,” an economist associated with a local bank told the newspaper. He added that the RBI finalises details of their accounts by the end of July and releases it to the government in August.
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After Prime Minister Modi announced demonetisation on the night of November 8, the RBI has not mentioned the amount of old notes that it has got back, despite disclosing the amount of scrapped notes in late November.
Just last week, RBI Governor Urjit Patel told a parliamentary standing committee on Wednesday that the bank was still not in a position to provide the exact amount of demonetised currency returned to the central bank. Counting "is still on" and the information will be provided "at the earliest," Patel said.
During the more than three-hour long meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Patel took a lot of questions but members, who did not want to be named, said he did not provide any "specific number" on the amount of money that came back to the system post-demonetisation on November 8.
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The Committee is chaired by senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily.
With Patel not providing any particular figure, saying that counting of the notes was still in progress, many panel members were reported to have expressed dissatisfaction with his replies.
Moily said the Committee will present its report on demonetisation in the Monsoon Session of Parliament and that the RBI Governor will not be called again on the note ban issue. The session is scheduled to start on July 17 and is expected to conclude on August 11.
Patel appeared before the panel for the second time today after cancellation of old Rs 500 and 1,000 currency notes on November 8 -- a government decision which had attracted a lot of criticism from the Opposition.
In January too, the RBI governor had appeared before the committee and had told the members that he would submit a statement on the amount of money that came back into the system after demonetisation.Along with Patel, RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra was also present at today's meeting.
After the meeting, a senior member, who did not want to be named, said the governor did not provide any figure but gave details on remonetisation.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was present at the meeting, did not ask any question to the governor, according to three panel members.
Interestingly, it was Singh who had rescued Patel from a tough grilling during the January meeting when he intervened to say that the central bank and the governor's position as an institution should be respected.
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Replying to queries from the members on demonetisation and its fallout, Patel said counting of banned old Rs 500 and 1,000 currency notes goes on continuously for six days in a week.
With PTI Inputs
