Mumbai, Dec 13 (PTI): RBI today said banks have garnered Rs 12.44 trillion (Rs 12.44 lakh crore) in banned notes till December 10, while they have issued Rs 4.61 trillion to them since the demonetisation drive began 35 days ago.

"The old notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, which have been returned to the Reserve Bank and the currency chest, amounted Rs to 12.44 trillion as of December 10," RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi told reporters here.

The money that various banks have issued through their counters and ATMs since November 10 and up to December 10 stood at Rs 4.61 trillion, he added.

In volume terms the number stood at 21.8 billion pieces of notes of various denominations, of which 20.1 billion pieces were of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100. The number of higher denomination of new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes stood at 1.7 billion, he said.

Hence, while the notes surrendered have risen by almost Rs 1 trillion, cash disbursal has risen only a little since December 7, when RBI had said that banks had issued Rs 4.27 trillion of new notes post demonetisation through ATMs and bank counters, the banned notes collected stood at Rs 11.55 trillion.

"The entire system is continuously gearing up for supporting the circulation of notes in the hands of the public. Daily, we are issuing more and more notes, getting it printed and issuing it and this will be a continuous affair. The public are requested to freely use the notes that they have in their hands rather than hoard it," Gandhi said.