The Reserve Bank of India on Sunday clarified that it is using the sophisticated Currency Verification and Processing machines to “verify the numerical accuracy and genuineness” of the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

The RBI’s statement came a day after PTI reported that the central bank was not using counting machines to add up the scrapped bills, quoting a reply to an RTI query dated August 10.

“These machines are way superior to the note counting machines,” the RBI’s statement on Sunday read. “With a view to augmenting processing capacity, the RBI is using the available machines in two shifts and has been using some machines temporarily drawn from commercial banks after suitable modifications.”

In its RTI reply, the central bank had refused to disclose the number of personnel counting the demonetised notes, saying that compiling such data would “disproportionately divert” its resources.

The Centre had scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016, claiming that the move would end black money, fake currency and corruption in the country.

In its annual report released on August 30, the RBI had said Rs 15.28 lakh crore, or more than 99% of the value of the currency that was scrapped, had returned to the banking system till June 30. It had said that these figures were only an estimate and may be corrected later as the notes deposited after demonetisation had not been processed for “numerical authenticity”.