NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley has said that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had enough currency in its chests to last till December 30, dismissing charges that the central bank was not adequately prepared for demonetisation.Jaitley on Tuesday also defended RBI’s latest diktat that people must deposit all their old scrapped notes with banks in one go, saying repeat deposits of such notes raises doubt, and said tax incentive to small traders opting for digital payments will translate into substantial gains for them.“There was not a single day when RBI had not released adequate currency to banks. There was a certain level of currency that was to be released and there was full preparedness for it,” Jaitley told reporters.He said RBI has maintained the stock of currency through advance as well as current printing level and enough currency in its chests. “Today also RBI has more than adequate stock not only to last them for December 30 but to last them far beyond that.”Asked about the currency in circulation, Jaitley said the figures will be made public only after accurate calculation after December 30, the last date for depositing scrapped currency in banks. “The currency which got printed might have gone to post offices and from there to banks and again back to currency chest, so there could be double counting and scope for inaccuracies. So we do not want to guess the figures (of currency in circulation),” he said.The scrapped currency made up for 86%, or over Rs 15.45 lakh crore, of total notes in circulation as on November 8. According to some estimates, Rs 13 lakh crore of cancelled notes has already been deposited in banks.Responding to queries on curbs on deposit of old currency notes by the RBI, Jaitley said people should go and deposit the now-defunct notes in one go as repeat deposits raise doubts.“Today there are no exemptions... Now there is no further scope of earning old currency so those who have got old currency must go and deposit in one go,” he said. “As long as exemptions existed there was scope for getting old currency, but once the exemptions have been lifted if you have old currency go and deposit in one go,” he said.RBI had on Monday said deposit of old notes in excess of Rs 5,000 into a bank account will be allowed only once during the remaining period till December 30, and that depositors would be questioned on record why they did not deposit it earlier.Jaitley later on Monday clarified that no questions will be asked if any amount of junked currency is deposited in one go, but repeated deposits may raise queries. “If they go and deposit with bank any amount of currency, no questions are going to be asked to them and therefore the Rs 5,000 limit does not apply to them if they go and deposit it once,” he had said.Jaitley on Tuesday said the government’s decision to tweak the presumptive income norms would reduce tax liability by up to 30% for small traders opting for digital transactions.He said that in the budget for 2016-17, small traders and businessmen with turnover of up to Rs 2 crore who did not maintain proper accounts were presumed to have earned 8% income or profit for tax purposes.But if they use digital mode of payments, their income will now be presumed to be 6% of the turnover and not 8%, the minister pointed out. “So he will get a significant tax benefit,” he said. “The object is if you do transactions using digital mode then you can pay less tax. It is a tax incentive to support digitisation of the economy. And if we calculate it, then some traders would get over 30% tax advantage if he transacts through digital mode,” Jaitley said.He said there had been significant jump in digital transactions since PM Narendra Modi on November 8 announced that old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes had ceased to be legal tender. Digital transactions have increased by over 300%. In cases where base was low, the growth is as much as 1,500%, he said.The minister has said the Axis Bank management has assured the government that it is taking action against erring officials involved in irregularities post demonetisation. “The chairperson (CEO Shikha Sharma) of the bank has given details.... The bank has identified the officers who the investigative agencies could not catch and…sacked the suspected officials,” Jaitley said after a pre-budget meeting with bankers where Sharma was present.He said Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation are keeping a watch on the activities on bankers, and the top management of banks has been advised to take action against delinquent officials.On whether the government would act tough against bankers involved in illegally changing old currency or diverting new notes, he said, “What more tough action the can the government take? There are lakhs of people in banks who are working and many have done a good job…. They have sat on Saturdays/Sundays and till midnight and distributed currency and tackled the crowd. There might have been some officials who have got into misconduct and hence, all the investigative agencies are conducting inquiries."