In Parliament, it was discussed that when it comes to loading the cash in cash vending machines, no instructions have been given by the government to the banks for filling or not filling Rs 2,000 notes in Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply in Lok Sabha that as per the Annual Reports of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the total value of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denomination bank notes in circulation as at end-March 2017 and as at March-end 2022 was Rs 9.512 lakh crore and Rs 27.057 lakh crore.
No Instructions To Banks On Filling or Not filling 2000 Notes : Finance Minister
She said that “No instructions have been given to banks for not filling Rs 2,000 notes in ATMs. Banks make their own assessment of amount and denominational requirement for ATMs on the basis of past usage, consumer requirement, seasonal trend, etc”.
She also shared that the total amount of the central government debt/liabilities is estimated at about Rs 155.8 lakh crore (57.3 per cent of GDP) as on March 31, 2023.
She said that the out of that, the external debt valued at current exchange rate is estimated at Rs 7.03 lakh crore (2.6 per cent of GDP).
Speaking on the external debt and risk profile, she said that “Share of external debt is only about 4.5 per cent of total debt/liabilities of the central government and less than 3 per cent of GDP. External debt is mostly financed by multilateral and bilateral agencies at concessional rates. Therefore, the risk profile stands out as safe and prudent”.
She said that various measures have been announced by RBI in consultation with the government to diversify and expand the sources of forex funding to mitigate exchange rate volatility and global spill overs.
It included the “fresh FCNR(B) and NRE deposits were exempted from the extant regulation on interest rates (i.e. interest rates shall not be higher than those offered by the banks on comparable domestic rupee term deposits) till October 31, 2022.”
Increased External Commercial Borrowing Limit
She said that the external commercial borrowing limit under automatic route has been raised to USD 1.5 billion and the all-in-cost ceiling has been raised by 100 basis points in select cases up to December 31, 2022.
She said that in order to promote the growth of exports from India and to support the increasing interest of the global trading community in the Indian rupee, RBI has put in place an additional arrangement for invoicing, payment, and settlement of exports/imports in the rupee on July 11, 2022 etc.
