Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel will today present himself before the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance to face questions on the demonetisation drive.
According to reports, opposition party members on the panel were not satisfied with the documents RBI and the Finance Ministry had given the committee and thus wanted Patel to face the panel.
Representatives of the Finance ministry, including from the Department of Economic Affairs, Financial Services and Revenue will be present to brief the members of the Committee headed by former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily.
Also, representatives of Indian Banks Association (IBA), State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) are expected to be present in the meeting.
The meeting will discuss the ‘demonetisation of Indian currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 and the impact thereof’.
On January 20, Patel is also scheduled to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on the same issue.
In a surprise move on November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Following the decision, the RBI had put restrictions on withdrawal of cash from ATMs as well as from banks to deal with shortage of new high denomination currency notes. This led to long queues at ATMs and bank branches. However, the cash situation improved gradually with supply of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes.
