Mumbai: In a shocking development, an RTI query has revealed that over Rs 88,000 crore worth of Rs 500 notes are missing from the Reserve Bank of India's reserves as not all money printed in mints reached the central bank.
As per a report by FPJ, activist Manoranjan Roy had filed the RTI, which disclosed that the Bengaluru, Nashik, and Dewas government mints printed a total of 8,810.65 million Rs 500 notes. However, the RBI received only 7,260 million notes, indicating a shortage of 1,550.65 million notes. In addition to the missing notes, an earlier RTI response from last month stated that the RBI did not receive 210 million pieces of Rs 500 currency notes printed by the Nashik mint between April 2015 and March 2016.
When combining the missing 210 million notes with the previously mentioned 1,550.65 million missing notes, the total amounts to 1,760.65 million Rs 500 currency notes unaccounted for, equivalent to Rs 88,032.5 crore. The RTI query by Roy aimed to uncover the status of Rs 500 notes, prompting the RBI to disclose that the Nashik mint printed 375.450 million newly designed Rs 500 notes.
However, the RBI's records show that it only received 345 million pieces between April 2015 and December 2016. In another RTI response, the same printing press revealed that during the financial year 2015-2016, 210.000 million pieces of Rs 500 currency notes were supplied to the RBI under the tenure of Raghuram Rajan as RBI governor, but the RBI did not receive any of those notes.
The Bengaluru-based mint supplied 5,195.65 million notes of Rs 500, while the Dewas Bank Note Press provided 1,953.000 million pieces to the RBI in 2016-2017. The FPJ report highlighted that out of the total 8,810 million notes issued by the three mints, the RBI only received 7,260 pieces of the newly designed Rs 500 note.
The currency notes in India are printed in three mints: Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran (P) Limited in Bengaluru, Currency Note Press in Nashik, and Bank Note Press in Dewas. These mints send the printed notes to the RBI, which is responsible for managing the country's cash flow.
Meanwhile, the news has created a stir in the Maharashtra political circles with Ajit Pawar, the leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra, demanding that the case should be thoroughly investigated by the central and state governments.
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