RBI governor, ministry officials to brief PAC on note ban impact

PAC has sent a detailed questionnaire to the officials based on the issues flagged by the members

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel, finance secretary Ashok Lavasa and economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das will brief the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on January 20 on the impact of demonetisation on Indian economy and the amount of black money unearthed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the move on November 8.

 

“RBI governor and senior finance ministry officials will appear before the committee to brief on demonetisation on January 20,” PAC chairman KV Thomas told Business Standard.

 

The meeting was earlier slated for first week of January but had to be deferred due to preoccupation of the officials.

 

According to sources, PAC has sent a detailed questionnaire to these officials based on the issues flagged by the members. While the impact of demonetisation is foremost among the issues raised by the members, the lawmakers also want to know how much black money has been unearthed as a result of the note ban. Other issues include, the currency available with the banks now and what percentage of it is fake.

 

Further, the panel members want to know when the supply of new currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2000 would become normal given long queues were witnessed outside banks and ATMs since November 8.