The Reserve Bank of India in its annual report said that as many as 99.3 per cent of the old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, that were banned overnight in November 2016, have been returned.

The annual report, which has been released on Wednesday, said that of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore worth 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in circulation before November 8, 2016, notes worth Rs 15.31 lakh crore have been returned.

The "humungous task of processing and verification of specified bank notes (SBNs) was successfully achieved," it said.

The SBNs (refering to the demonetised old 500 and 1,000 rupee) received were verified, counted and processed in the sophisticated high speed currency verification and processing system (CVPS) for accuracy and genuineness and then shredded, it added.

RBI said the processing of SBNs has since been completed. "The total SBNs returned from circulation is Rs 15,310.73 billion.