No estimates of undeposited black money in old notes: Govt
7 April 2017 5:26 PM GMT
There is no official estimate of black money held in scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that have been left undeposited with banks during the demonetisation period.
"There is no official estimation of the amount of black money in form of old Rs 500/1000 that have not been deposited during the course of demonetisation drive," Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. Cash deposits of more than Rs 5 lakh were made in 23.87 lakh accounts between November 8 and December 30, 2016 -- the period of demonetisation, he said. "Separate details of such deposits in old and new currency are not maintained," the minister added.
Also, the cumulative deposits of more than Rs 25 lakh of all kinds of were made in about 4.62 lakh loan accounts during the period, he added.
To another question, Gangwar said the Reserve Bank has informed that no specific guideline directing public sector banks to keep their account books correct were issued by them. Banks are required to prepare a balance sheet and profit and loss account as per the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. In another reply, the minister said the RBI has informed that it has not expressed its inability to supply notes to any bank nor refuse to give cash, and always endeavours to supply as much as is required consistent to its stocks.
Regarding a question on One Time Settlement Scheme for MSME sector, he said State Bank of India has offered the scheme to its non-performing assets (as on March 31, 2016) with outstanding of above Rs 5 lakh and up to Rs 5 crore and Advances under Collection Accounts with outstanding ranging from Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 crore, in manufacturing, trade and services. "SBI has received 2,772 applications, out of which 2,703 applications have been approved by the bank," said Gangwar.
No shortage of currency and coins, maintains Centre
The government on Friday set the record straight on cash circulation, saying there is no shortage of notes except some sporadic cases. In his written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said various measures have been taken for equitable distribution of notes across the country to ensure availability of small denominations.
"There is no shortage of currency notes and coins except some sporadic and occasional incidents of shortage," he said.
He was replying to a question whether there is shortage of notes and coins of Rs 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 forcing people to procure the same from blackmarketeers at heavy prices.
The minister said production of currency notes and coins has been raised substantially to meet any shortfall in demand. During November 10 to December 19, 2016, a total of 22.6 billion pieces of notes of various denominations have been supplied of which 20.4 billion were small denominations of Rs 10, 20, 50 and 100.
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