It was expected that there will be some difficulty for the first few days as 86% currency is changed: FM Arun Jaitley pic.twitter.com/3CRwsbpLkS? ANI (@ANI_news) November 12, 2016
Assuring that RBI and banks have stacked up enough currency to replace the Rs 14 lakh crore worth of Rs 1000/500 notes that have been declared invalid, he said the government is constantly monitoring the situation as it is a "massive operation".
At a hurriedly called press conference, Jaitley urged people not to flock the banks to exchange the now-defunct banknotes, asking them to stagger it over the 50-day window provided by the government for the purpose.
FM: All currency chests of @RBI have sufficient money.? Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) November 12, 2016
"It is a regret that people are being inconvenienced. Because a replacement of this magnitude will cause inconvenience as you have to go to the bank, you have to stand in a queue," he said.
Hitting out at opposition leaders who demanded a rollback of the move, Jaitley said some reactions to the black money clean-up “have been very disappointing and irresponsible".
Hardly 40 per cent of the ATMs were operating in the country and they too ran out of cash within hours. The new Rs 500 note was available only in Delhi and Mumbai and RBI has already started releasing soiled Rs 100 notes to cope with the demand.
On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes with effect from midnight, making these notes invalid in a major assault on black money, fake currency and corruption.
(With PTI inputs)
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