NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel, in his briefing to a Parliamentary standing committee on finance on Wednesday, said Rs 9.2 lakh crore of new currency has been infused into the system post demonitisation but failed to give a timeline in which normalcy is expected to return to the banking system.
Patel also could not give a definite number of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 bills returned post demonetisation as RBI was still tabulating those.
Sources said the Governor was spared a tough grilling at the meeting as senior MPs including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intervened to say RBI as an institution needs to be respected.
Congress MPs like Digvijay Singh wanted Patel to be specific in his replies on the lifting of cash withdrawal restrictions and wanted to follow through with tougher questions but were prevented by Singh and others, they said.
The RBI governor, accompanied by deputy governors R Gandhi and S S Mundra, explained that discussions for demonetising high-value currency notes between the government and the central bank had been going on since early 2016, and the RBI was in agreement with the government on the objective behind scrapping of the Rs 500/1000 notes.
The Committee headed by former Union Minister and senior Congress leader M Veerapa Moily had called the RBI and finance ministry officials to discuss the "demonetisation of Indian currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 and the impact thereof".
The committee decided to call the RBI Governor and ministry officials again on a later date--most likely after Parliament goes on a break during the Budget session—since the members could not complete their questions.
"He (Patel) replied in part but he could not answer main questions. How much money has come back into the system and by when banks' operations will be normal. It seems RBI officials were in very defensive position on demonetisation," a senior opposition member said after the meeting.
Senior bureaucrats, including Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Banking Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, and top bank honchos like Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank and Usha Ananthasubramanian of Punjab National Bank are also set to appear before the committee headed by Congress leader Veerappa Moily.
The RBI Governor is also scheduled to appear before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on the same issue on January 20.
Meanwhile, protests have erupted across the country at various offices of the central bank by members of the Congress party against demonitisation. These protests are part of its nationwide RBI Gherao programme.
With inputs from PTI