Unsatisfied with the responses of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel to specific queries on demonetisation, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on 20 January asked him to furnish written replies to the concerns expressed by the members within two weeks and appear before the panel again, a report said on 21 January.
Patel, along with Deputy Governor R Gandhi and other senior functionaries, appeared before PAC for oral evidence on “Review of Monetary Policy”. The governor did not give specific answers on who initiated the note ban, how much cash had come back into the banks and when the cash supply situation would normalise, the report said.
During the four-hour-long meeting, Opposition members asked Patel questions on the dent in the economy, job losses and the loss of over 100 lives allegedly caused by demonetisation. “He (Patel) said there may be problems but we will overcome them,” said a member on the panel.
The RBI governor said the central bank was in touch with the service providers of some online payment platforms to reduce transaction cost. When a member pointed out that the deposits in cooperative banks shot up around six times within days of the note ban, Patel, said the RBI was looking into the matter.
To have further clarity on the impact of the note ban, PAC has also asked Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal to appear before it on February 20.
Also, more than 72 days after demonetisation, RBI, in a written answer to queries raised earlier, said it still did not know the exact number of junked currency notes that were in circulation and it is still reconciling the number of notes that were deposited back.
PAC was informed by RBI that the matter related to demonetisation was under discussion between the government and RBI for “some months”, following which the proposal was placed before the central board of RBI on November 8 for consideration. The board recommended the proposal to the government.