The Parliamentary panel on finance will present its report on demonetization in the upcoming Monsoon Session and RBI Governor will not be called again on the note ban issue, the committee’s chairman M Veerappa Moily said today.
During the more than three-hour long meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance here today, RBI Governor Urjit Patel took a lot of questions but many members said the central bank chief did not provide any “specific number” on the amount of money that came back to the system post demonetization. “We had a lengthy discussion (on demonetization and various other issues) today… The panel will not be calling RBI Governor again on the issue of demonetization,” Moily told PTI.
The panel would submit its report on demonetization during the Monsoon Session of Parliament starting on July 17, Moily said. The session is to conclude on August 11. Patel appeared before the panel for the second time today after cancellation of old Rs 500 and 1,000 currency notes on November 8 — a government decision which had attracted a lot of criticism from the Opposition. In January too, the RBI governor had appeared before the committee and had told the members that he would submit a statement on the amount of money that came back into the system after demonetization. Along with Patel, RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra was also present at the meeting today.
With Patel not providing any particular figure, saying that counting of the notes was still in progress, many panel members expressed dissatisfaction with the RBI chief’s replies. After the meeting, a senior member said the governor did not provide any figure but gave details on remonetisation. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was present at the meeting, did not ask any question to the governor, according to three panel members. Incidentally, it was Singh who had rescued Patel from a tough grilling during the January meeting when he intervened to say that the central bank and the governor’s position as an institution should be respected.
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