While the last date of depositing demonetised currency is over, reports suggest the government now has about 94% of the old currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1000 notes, while the rest, which amounts to ₹75,000 crore has not returned to the system.
Latest reports suggest ₹14.5 lakh crores (amounting to 93.5%) have been returned to banks.
The Indian Express quoted a bank official as saying, "We also now know for sure that another ₹50,000 crore in old notes of ₹500 and ₹1,000 were already available with banks when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to demonetise the high-denomination currency."
The newspaper reported that the government had anticipated that 20% of the notes, which amounts to ₹3 lakh crores, that were in circulation would not return to the banks.
However there is still scope of some more of these notes returning to the banks with NRIs and Indians who are abroad still having time to exchange notes.
The Business Standard also reported that the government has raised doubts about double counting and the RBI may gave to recheck data.
When Modi had announced the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1000 notes on November 8, ₹15.4 lakh crore worth of notes were in circulation.
However, these notes may also include counterfeit currency, The Indian Express reported.
"The RBI has about 60 large-sized machines that are calibrated to distinguish the fake and counterfeit notes from the wads of returned currency. But even if they work for 12 hours, these 60 machines are estimated to take 600 days to complete the job," an official told the newspaper.