New Delhi: 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 Reserve Bank of India said in its annual report.

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 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.

SBNs refer to the demonetised old 500 and 1,000 rupee.

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