Cash in circulation nearly doubled at Rs 32.42 lakh crore as of December 2022 as against Rs 17.74 lakh crore in November 2016, the month in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the validity of both higher denomination currency notes — 500 and 1,000.
The Centre’s controversial note ban decision is once again refreshed in people’s memory as the Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Modi government’s demonetisation exercise.
Six years back, when the PM had announced demonetisation of old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 banknotes, it was said that the key objectives of the decision were to promote digital payments and curb black money flows.
Though digital payments have increased multifold since then, the currency or cash in circulation also rose parallelly.
As per RBI data, cash in circulation jumped to Rs 32.42 lakh crore on December 23, 2022. It was Rs 17.74 lakh crore on November 4, 2016.
However, soon after demonetisation, the cash in circulation had fallen to a low of about Rs 9 lakh crore on January 6, 2017, nearly 50 percent drop from November 2016. The cash in circulation at Rs 9 lakh crore was the lowest in the past six years following the banning of 500 and 1,000 bank notes which that time accounted for around 86 percent of the entire currency in circulation.
