NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India is still not in a position to provide the exact amount of demonetised currency returned to the central bank, Governor Urjit Patel told a parliamentary standing committee on Wednesday. Counting “is still on” and the information will be provided “at the earliest,” Patel said.Deputy Governor BP Kanungo told the committee that the RBI has floated a tender to buy more counting machines – in addition to the 59 it already has and the seven it hired – to speed up the counting, according to people familiar with the proceedings. Patel cited the government’s recent decision to allow cooperative banks to return old currency and the likelihood of Nepal giving back demonetised currency as part of an agreement as additional reasons that are delaying the counting.Many members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Finance protested unavailability of the amount of currency returned, pointing out that Patel had promised in January to provide the exact figure at his next appearance before the panel.Congress MP Digvijaya Singh asked the Governor whether he would give the figure “at least by May 2019,” when the government’s term ends, prompting almost all members, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and RBI top brass, to burst into laughter, the people said.Responding to another set of questions, Patel said currency worth Rs 15 lakh crore is back in circulation, which is about 86% of the total in circulation in November, when Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were scrapped. Patel said action was being taken to address currency shortage in some areas.Digvijaya Singh is said to have pointedly asked Patel to spell out how the stated reasons for demonetisation could be justified, given increasing incidents of terror strikes, unabated stone-pelting in Jammu & Kashmir and widely reported seizures of fake currency and unearthing of black money by agencies. Patel and his colleagues avoided direct responses and said they would provide members with a written reply. Many members asked Patel what action RBI was contemplating against bitcoin.