How many Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were deposited by December 31?

On December 31, the deadline for returning-high denomination notes, banned by the government, elapsed. But two months later, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is yet to give an estimate of just how many Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were deposited in banks during the period. Some estimates of currency returned were published in the initial few weeks after November 8. But with reports of possible double counting of notes cropping up, RBI thereafter resisted from updating its estimates, opting to physically count the notes returned. The government had hoped for a fiscal bounty from demonetisation equivalent to the amount of currency not returned to banks. While this was expected to materialise in the coming financial year, the amount also finds no mention in the Union Budget for FY18.