Bhubaneswar: Details of demonetisation could not be made public. This has been stated by the union finance ministry.

The economic affairs department of the union finance ministry, while replying to a Rright to Information (RTI) query, said that disclosure of demonetisation details would be against the economic interest of the country. Moreover, it added, there is possibility of misuse of the information regarding the demonetisation.

An RTI activist of Bolangir in Odisha, Hemanta Kumar Panda, had sought details of demonetisation including the photocopies of the government communiques among the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India. He had also asked for the details of the steps taken for introduction of new currencies to face the difficulty faced by the citizen of the country.

Panda had filed his RTI application with the finance ministry on November 30, 2016. He then appealed to the Central Information Commission when the finance ministry refused to divulge the details of demonetisation. It was on the direction of the Central Information Commission, the finance ministry has replied to the RTI application. However, it refused to give the details on the ground that it would be not in the interest of the nation’s economy.