RBI note ban return: Mamata Banerjee slams centre

"As soon as the draconian demonetisation was announced on 8th November, 2016, I immediately sensed by intuition that this is a big anti-people measure. It will severely affect the common people of the country, especially, farmers, unorganized sector, small entrepreneurs and hard-working middle class," Banerjee wrote on Facebook.

"Today, the RBI in its annual report for 2017-18 has vindicated our apprehension. 99.3% of the money has come back to the banking system.

My first question now is –where has the black money gone?

My second question – was this scheme hatched to allow some black-money holders to quietly convert their black money into white?

What a tragedy and what a shame!!!," she said.

The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday said that more than 99 percent of the old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes, which were banned by the Centre in 2016, have returned.

The information was shared by the RBI in its annual report published on Wednesday.

The Centre had banned the old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes on Nov 8, 2016.

The RBI in its annual report said: " The total SBNs returned from circulation is Rs.15,310.73 billion."

As per RBI data, the value of banknotes in circulation increased by 37.7 per cent over the year to Rs. 18,037 billion as at end-March 2018. 

"The volume of banknotes, however, increased by 2.1 per cent. In value terms, the share of Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000 banknotes, which had together accounted for 72.7 per cent of the total value of banknotes in circulation at end-March 2017, increased to 80.2 per cent as at end-March 2018," read the report published by the bank.