A few hours after the RBI announced that almost all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes scrapped in November 2016 had returned to the banking system, the Congress demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that he lied to the country over the demonetisation issue.

The party said the return of almost all the junked notes meant that the government had failed to unearth any black money, check terror financing and eradicate fake currency as promised by PM Modi while announcing noteban.

As per its report for 2017-18, the RBI said on Wednesday, on completion of the process of verification of scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, it was found that Rs 15.31 lakh crore of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore — or 99.3 per cent — in demonetised currency in circulation around the time demonetisation was announced on November 8, 2016, had come back to the banking system.

The opposition party said India had to pay a “huge price” for demonetising a bulk of the currency, announced all of a sudden by PM Modi on November 8, 2016.

Read | 99.3% of junked Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes returned to banks: RBI

Former finance minister P Chidambaram hit out at the Centre and claimed that more than 100 lives were lost and lakhs of jobs were destroyed due to closure of businesses after demonetisation.

The Indian economy lost 1.5 per cent of GDP growth that accounted for a loss of Rs 2.25 lakh crore a year, he added.

Every rupee of the Rs 15.42 lakh crore (barring a small sum of Ra 13,000 crore) has come back to the RBI.

Remember who had said that Rs 3 lakh crore will not come back and that will be a gain for the government!?

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 29, 2018

So, government and RBI actually demonetised only Rs 13,000 crore and the country paid a huge price.

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 29, 2018

Over 100 lives were lost. 15 crore daily wage earners lost their livelihood for several weeks. Thousands of SME units were shut down. Lakhs of jobs were destroyed.

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 29, 2018

Calling demonetization a Modi-made disaster, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the prime minister in his 2017 Independence Day speech had claimed that over Rs 3 lakh crore unaccounted money will come back to the system.

“The RBI report again proves that demonetisation was Modi-made disaster of epic proportions! 99.30 percent of demonetised money returns! Modi, in his 2017 Independence Day speech, made tall claims of Rs 3 lakh crore coming back to the system! Modiji, will you apologise for that lie now?” Congress Communications Incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted.

RBI Report again proves that Demonetisation was ‘Modi Made Disaster’ of Epic Proportions!

99.30% of Demonetised Money Returns!

PM Modi,in his 2017 Independence Day speech made tall claims of Rs 3 Lakh Cr coming back to the system!

Modiji, will you apologise for that Lie now? pic.twitter.com/BQkyUyh6hN

— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) August 29, 2018

The party also said the RBI report on demonetisation was a “damning indictment of the macro-economic management of the country”.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the RBI has come out with its annual report for the year 2017-18 and the picture is even grim on demonetisation.

Terming announcement of demonetisation a ‘Tughlaqi Farman’, Tewari asked what it had really achieved.

“It wiped out the MSME sector, cottage industry and crores of daily wage-earners lost their jobs. The Indian economy lost 1.5 per cent in terms of GDP growth,” he said.

“The RBI says that out of the total SBNs in circulation — Specified Bank Notes (which in this case is 500 and 1,000 currency notes), as on November 8, 2016 was Rs 15.41 lakh crore. Out of that Rs 15.31 lakh crore is back in to the banking system.

“So this means that the entire demonetisation exercise yielded a demonetization of only Rs 10,000 crore,” Tewari added.

“The prime minister should at least apologise to the country for the manner in which he conducted surgical strikes on the country’s economy,” Tewari told reporters at an AICC briefing.

Banks received Rs 15.31 lakh crore or 99.3 per cent of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore worth Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that were in circulation on November 8, 2016 — the day when the note ban was announced, according to the RBI.

This means that just Rs 10,720 crore of the junked currency notes did not return to the banking system. Initial estimates had pegged that around Rs 3 lakh crore worth demonetised notes would not return to the system as they might have been stashed away illegally to avoid tax.