Over Rs 29 cr spent on using services of Indian Air Force to ferry newly-issued currency notes post-demonetization

New Delhi, July 9: Over Rs 29.41 crore was spent on using the services of Indian Air Force to the newly-issued Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 currency notes post-demonetization.

 

According to an RTI reply, over Rs 29.41 crore was spent on using the Indian Air Force's ultra-modern transport aircraft including C-17 and the C-130J Super Hercules for the transportation of the newly-issued Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 currency notes post-demonetization.

In its RTI reply to Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), the Indian Air Force said it has billed the government-owned Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India and the Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Ltd to the tune of Rs 29.41 crore for its services.

The IAF further said that its frontline transport aircraft, the C-17 and the C-130J Super Hercules, undertook 91 sorties to transport bundles of currency from security printing presses and mints to various destinations across the country.

On November 8, 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government took a historic decision of ‘Demonetization’ or scrapping the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in a bid to curb black money, corruption and check counterfeit currency.

According to RBI and government data, as on 8, 2016, there were 1,716.5 crore pieces of Rs 500 and 685.8 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 notes in circulation, totaling Rs 15.44 lakh crore, about 86 percent of the total currency in circulation. But after demonetization, the RBI, in its annual report for 2017, had said just 7.1 pieces of Rs 500 note per million in circulation and 19.1 pieces of Rs 1,000 notes per million in circulation were found to be fake in its sample survey.