NAGPUR: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is conducting a massive recount of banned notes collected by banks till December 30. The move is aimed to ensure that there is no error in calculating the number of specified bank notes (SBNs) being withdrawn from the system.As the exercise continues at national level to physically tally the balance submitted by banks’ currency chests, bankers say only minor differences are expected to be found.Sources privy to the activity said special inspections are being conducted at the banks’ currency chest to match the balance submitted on December 30 with the physical count of notes. A deadline of January 31 has been set to finish the exercise.There are different estimates ranging from Rs 14 to Rs 15 lakh crore of SBNs having gone back to banks. With reports of as much as 97% of notes being deposited, question is whether black money has been actually flushed out.The recount orders came soon after the RBI clarified that SBNs or banned currency were based on aggregation of accounting entries done at the numerous currency chests all over the country. Now that the scheme has come to an end, the figures need to be recoiled with the physical cash balances to eliminate any accounting errors, according to the RBI’s clarification.Sources in commercial banks said the current system itself leaves little scope for a major error. The notes collected through a bank’s branches are sent to the currency chest. Every bank has a currency chest in an area where it has major presence. Some banks have more than one chest in the city. The RBI is sent a daily balance of the amount collected in each chest every evening.“At times, it happens that cash has been dispatched from the chest to the RBI, but the amount is not deducted from the chest’s books. However, the balance has to be tallied at end of the day and such mistakes are rectified,” said a source in the RBI.There are chances of some shortfall in the bundles of notes. For example, as against 1,000 notes reported in a bundle, some 100 can be short.However, this will only bring a minor difference in the count, said sources in the banking sector Even earlier, the RBI conducted periodical inspections of the chest but it has not happened at a mass scale like this, sources said. Team officials of banks itself have been deployed for the job. But the RBI wants that if the teams are from the banks itself, it should comprise non-currency chest staff.