The Centre has asserted that had there been no notes recall, the currency in circulation would have gone up to over ₹4 lakh crore. The Government maintained that demonetisation led to “institutional transparency and made India a “leader in digital transactions”.

These remarks come at a time when cash in use has touched a record of over 14 per cent of the GDP.

In a series of tweets by MyGovIndia, the Centre’s citizen engagement platform, there is acknowledgement that bank notes in circulation have increased – the total value rose to ₹28.26 lakh crore at the end of the fiscal year 2020-21 from ₹16.4 lakh crore as of fiscal year 2015-16. “Bank notes in circulation would have increased by ₹4.36 lakh crore in the absence of demonetisation in 5 years,” one of the tweets said.

On November 8, five years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced demonetisation of old ₹1,000 and ₹500 banknotes.

According to the latest RBI data, the notes in circulation, in value terms, soared from ₹17.74 lakh crore on November 4, 2016, to ₹29.17 lakh crore on October 29, 2021.

Data also revealed that the value and volume of bank notes in circulation had increased by 16.8 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively, during 2020-21 as against an increase of 14.7 per cent and 6.6 per cent, respectively, witnessed during 2019-20. Notes in circulation had grown at an average growth rate of 14.51 per cent year-on-year from October 2014 till October 2016, the month preceding the demonetisation.

Digital transactions

In another tweet by MyGovIndia, it has been said that the value of UPI transactions surged to ₹41.31 lakh crore at the end of FY 21 from ₹6,900 crore at the end of FY 17.

Black money

The platform also reported that undisclosed assets worth ₹4,934 crore were seized while undisclosed income of over ₹50,000 crore was admitted and over ₹54,000 crore was detected. Similarly, under the Black Money Act 2015, undisclosed foreign assets worth ₹4,164 crore were disclosed.