Rs 53,000 crore were deposited with the State Bank of India (SBI) during the last two days after the government’s demonetisation move. The bank received Rs 31,000 crore on Thursday and Rs 22,000 on Friday.
“The cash is drying up. But we are taking care of it. There is no need to panic. We still have 50 days in hand. Nothing is going out of fashion. Till that time, please publicise the use of debit cards,” bank Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said on Friday.
Nearly 14 lakh crore are held in Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes now – nearly 86% of the total value of currencies of all denominations in circulation. According to the SBI, about 3.7% of this money has come back to banks by Friday.
Experts fear that a strict scrutiny regime may force many people to destroy their illegal stash of wealth. – PTI