MUMBAI: Almost all the currency demonetised in November found its way back into the banking system, seemingly belying the contention that it would help eradicate black money It had been thought that income tax evaders wouldn’t deposit any unaccounted wealth in banks for fear of prosecution, indirectly swelling the government’s coffers.On the other hand, the cost of withdrawing the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes is showing up on the books of the Reserve Bank of India.Its cost of printing currency notes has more than doubled, the central bank said in its annual report for FY17 that was issued on Wednesday. But bankers such as Uday Kotak, vice-chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank, and JPMorgan’s regional head Kalpana Morparia said India should look beyond these numbers and pointed to demonetisation ’s intangible benefits — providing a trail for investigative agencies to follow and hunt down tax evaders besides boosting digital payments that can be better tracked, making it virtually impossible to evade taxes.The numbers provided by the central bank are still estimates with the deadline for submitting old notes having expired at the end of last year.“Subject to future corrections based on verification process when completed, the estimated value of SBNs (specified bank notes) received as on June 30, 2017, is Rs 15.28 lakh crore,” RBI said. “Till such time these notes are processed by the Reserve Bank for their numerical accuracy and authenticity, only an estimation of SBNs received back is possible.”PM Narendra Modi last year took the historic step of demonetising two high-value currency notes with the aim of quelling black money, counterfeits and terror funding.The move led to long queues at banks and cash machines amid currency rationing as RBI struggled to print enough new notes, leading to loss of income and economic disruption.“Shame on RBI which ‘recommended’ demonetisation,” former finance minister P Chidambaram tweeted. “RBI ‘gained’.Rs 16,000 crore, but ‘lost’ .Rs 21,000 crore in printing new notes! The economists deserve Nobel Prize.’’RBI said as much as Rs 15.28 lakh crore of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore in circulation last November had been deposited, in contrast with the government’s expectation. Mukul Rohatgi, attorney general at the time, had told the Supreme Court in November that out of the total estimated money in circulation of .Rs 15-16 lakh crore, the government expected people to deposit Rs 10-11lakh crore in banks.“The rest, .Rs 4-5 lakh crore, were being used in northeast and Jammu and Kashmir to fuel trouble in India. That will be neutralised,” he had said. The economists believed this would benefit the government since the RBI could write off that liability of .Rs 4 lakh crore and transfer the same to the government for welfare activities and to build infrastructure. The annual report details the cost of the exercise.Expenditure on printing of notes in RBI’s last fiscal year, which ran from July to June, was Rs 7,950 crore, up from Rs 3,421crore a year earlier, it said.Supply of notes during the year at 29,043 million pieces was 37% higher than the total supply in the year before’s 21,195 million pieces. While the return of banned notes may have thrown out calculations, it has thrown up benefits such as depositor details which income tax and other departments can use to pursue evaders.