RBI Did Not Say Demonetisation Was a Rs 9 Lakh Crore Scam
2 years since demonetisation, fake news related to the shock economic reform are still doing the rounds.
It has been more than two years since the government announced demonetisation, but fake news related to the shock economic reform are still doing rounds - both, for and against the decision.
CLAIM
Posts quoting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as saying that note ban led to a loss of Rs 9 lakh crore have gone viral on social media.
A post put up on 1 November by Facebook page ‘Viral in India’ has been shared a staggering 25,814 times.
Another post on similar lines was put up by a Facebook page ‘With INC’ on the same day and has been shared 3,395 times.
TRUE OR FALSE
The RBI has never made any such observation. The most significant observation made by the central bank about demonetisation was about the banned notes that have returned to the system.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
As mentioned earlier, the RBI, in August this year, said that 99.3% of demonetised currency, or Rs 15.31 lakh crore of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore demonetised, has been returned to the banking system. This observation made in RBI’s annual report was widely covered by all major news organisations.
However, there exists no report or article which quotes the RBI saying that note ban incurred losses worth Rs 9 lakh crore.
Moreover, one of the posts mentioned above uses screenshot of a tweet put out by the handle @AmarUjalaNews. The Twitter handle and the logo resembles that of leading news organisation Amar Ujala. A senior journalist working for the organisation confirmed that the handle is a parody one, and that Amar Ujala has never tweeted anything of this sort.
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