The government has accelerated printing of currency notes to meet the unusual spurt in demand due to local elections and higher transactions during rabi season.
"The government is printing about Rs 2,500 crore worth of Rs 500 notes per day to meet the increased demand in the past two to three months," Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Garg told reporters in an emergency press conference after the news of currency crunch broke raising fears of hoarding and stocking of currency notes.
He said that the country still has a currency reserve of Rs 1.75 lakh crore to meet increased demand. The secretary said that the monthly cash supply has already increased to Rs 45,000 crore in between January and March when the demand started picking up.
Garg added that the total currency supply in the country stood at Rs 18 lakh crore, which was a tad higher than the levels of pre-demonetisation period.
He said the government is still looking into more reasons of currency crunch but did not rule out the "shortage mentality" at play right now. Garg also appealed to people not to resort to currency hoarding.
Published 17 April 2018, 09:39 IST