Telangana News

On the evening of the announcement of demonetization, the Reserve Bank of India has refused to divulge details about the number of demonetized notes already at banks.    

RBI, responding to an RTI query, claimed an exemption, citing danger to the life or who disclosed this information to the public. The apex bank also refused to divulge details on its preparations for demonetization and studies it used to forecast its impact, claiming that revealing such ‘sensitive matters’ would endanger the country’s sovereignty, integrity and security.

The top bank earlier said that, the Centre advised to approve the demonetization on November 7th, which is just a day before the PM’s official announcement. On the other side, recently Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that, it was RBI, who suggested the note ban.  

Countering the minister’s statements, the RBI in a 7-page note to the Parliament's Department-Related Committee of Finance headed by Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, stated that, the Centre had on November 7, 2016 "advised the Reserve Bank that to mitigate the triple problems of counterfeiting, terrorist financing and black money, the Central Board of the Reserve Bank may consider withdrawal of the legal tender status of the notes in high denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000."

The RBI's Central Board met the very next day to "consider the Government's advice," and after "deliberations," decided to "recommend to the Central Government that the legal tender status of the banknotes in high denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 be withdrawn."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed Union cabinet met within hours of that recommendation and thus made it official.