Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has denied that the matter of missing ₹ 500 notes worth ₹ 88,032 crore from the system is incorrect. The RBI said that certain sections of the media have circulated the issue of currency notes going missing between the printing press and reaching the banks. According to the RBI, these reports are based on misinterpretation of information collected from printing presses under the Right to Information Act, 2005. According to RBI, “A proper account of all bank notes sent to RBI from the printing presses is maintained. Also, state that there are robust systems in place for matching banknotes printed in the presses and sent to the RBI, including monitoring of production as well as protocols for storage and distribution of notes.” RBI has urged the public to rely on the information published by RBI from time to time in such matters.

Manoranjan Roy got RTI reply

A report was published by the Free Press Journal on Saturday in which the notes were said to be missing. The report cited data obtained by activist Manoranjan Roy through the Right to Information Act (RTI). It was said that ₹ 500 notes worth ₹ 88,032.50 crore are missing. The data from the three printing presses revealed that 8810.65 million pieces of the newly designed ₹ 500 notes were printed by the three currency note presses. However, RBI records show that only 7260 million pieces were received during 2016-17.

Notes printed in Nashik Printing Press

RTI activist claims 210 million notes printed at Nashik Mint during April 2015 to March 2016 are missing. The Nashik Currency Printing Press printed 375.450 million pieces of new ₹ 500 notes between April 2015 and December 2016, but only 345 million notes appear in RBI records. According to RTI, these notes were given to RBI during Raghuram Rajan's tenure as governor.