Banks in India received total deposits of over Rs 5 lakh crore in September 2016, data from the Reserve Bank of India has revealed.
92 “Scheduled Commercial Banks” in the country had a total deposit of Rs 93,93,014 crore as on August 31, 2016, while the same grew to Rs 99,28,433 crore at the end of September, according to RBI data, provide by the government to Rajya Sabha in a written reply today.
While the deposits in September grew by Rs 5,35,419 crore, it came down by Rs 1,22,548 crore in October, Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, said in his reply to questions asked by Samajwadi Party MP Neeraj Shekhar.
The banks had Rs 98,05,885 crore at the end of October 2016.
The unusual hike in deposits in September, two months before Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes on November 8, had triggered a controversy last year.
Congress had called for a probe into the "sudden economic activity" weeks before the announcement of demonetisation.
The data provided by the RBI in November last year showed that the amounts deposited in banks shot up by Rs 5.88 lakh crore in the month of September.
However, the data provided by the govt today only shows the deposits in 92 “Scheduled Commercial Banks” and does include the data by cooperative banks.
“RBI has informed that the data on Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Cooperative Banks and deposits in banks as arrear of seventh CPC and voluntary disclosure scheme in August and September, 2016 is not available with RBI,” Gangwar told the Upper House of Parliament.
The State Bank of India had clarified that the unusual spike in bank deposits in the month of September was mainly due to the Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) of the government and from arrears of the seventh pay commission which was credited in bank accounts in that month.
State Bank of India, as expected has the largest deposit with Rs 18,05,828 crore in its coffers as on October 31, 2016.
Among private sector banks, HDFC had the most deposits with Rs 5,91,637 crore at the end of October.