Currency in circulation rises to Rs 21 lakh crore as on March 2019: Thakur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced banning high value Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016 with the aim to curb black money, check terrorism and further digital economy. On asked if the government proposed total elimination of cash from the market, Thakur said, "No such proposal regarding total elimination of cash from the market is under consideration of the government." To a question whether government has taken note of the fact that non-availability of Rs 1,000 currency causes problems to the citizens, Thakur said the economy has already adjusted itself to the new scenario where the earlier series of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 had ceased to be a legal tender. Fresh series of Rs 500 were issued and a new denomination of Rs 2,000 has been introduced, he added. As per the RBI's much-delayed report on how much of the junked currency was returned by public, it was found that 99.3 per cent of the invalid Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes returned to the banking system. The RBI data on return of junked currency notes was published in its Annual Report for 2017-18. Of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore worth Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation on November 8, 2016, currency notes worth Rs 15.31 lakh crore were returned. To a question if the government has assessed any impact for past one year on digital adoption of currency, Thakur said no formal assessment to measure the impact of Digital India programme has been conducted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. "However, the statistics of e-transactions on e-Taal platform gives an indication of increase in digital penetration and usage of e-Government tools in India. More than 1,454 crore e-transactions have been recorded for 3,702 services since January 2019," the minister said. ... DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: Deccan Chroniclehttp://yarp.com/fab1f14e07fa