RBI Governor Urjit Patel today clarified that the decision to demonetise old 500 and 1000 rupee notes was not taken in haste but after detailed deliberations. Addressing a press conference post the announcement of 5th Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Review, Mr. Patel said the motivation behind this move was to check the menace of high quality counterfeit currency notes and to unearth black money that was stored in cash. <br/><br/>While maintaining that a high level of secrecy had to be maintained to ensure that the motive was not jeopardised, Mr. Patel said that RBI is fully conscious of the difficulties that people are facing and is constantly working to mitigate the troubles.<br/> <br/>On a the brighter side, Mr. Patel said that new notes with enhanced security features will not only bring more transparency and accountability into the system but will also be very difficult to forge. He added that a collateral benefit of demonetisation is the increased use of digital payment systems; which in the long term will cut the cost of printing currency notes as the total quantum of paper currency will come down. <br/> <br/>Stating that there is no fundamental trust deficit on demonetisation, Mr. Patel said public at large has approved the policy as a counter measure for unearthing black money. <br/> <br/>RBI Governor also thanked the employees of all public and private sector banks for their dedicated work while also acknowledging the unstinting effort of RBI staff and printing presses.