New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday admitted that some people died due to reasons linked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sudden demonetisation move on November 8, 2016.

Laying out the details in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of parliament), Jaitley revealed that the State Bank of India (SBI) had reported four deaths linked to demonetisation.

“State Bank of India has reported that three staff members and one customer died during the period of demonetisation,” he stated.

Responding to a question by Communist Party of India (Marxist) lawmaker Elamaram Kareem, Jaitley said there no other deaths linked to demonetisation reported by other public sector banks.

The finance minister compensation amounting to Rs4.4 million (Dh228,539) was paid to the family members of the deceased.

“The compensation was duly paid to the family members of those who died due to reasons linked to demonetisation. However, no specific study has been done by government on the impact of demonetisation on industry and employment situation in the country,” Jaitley said.

It was earlier speculated that a sizeable number of people, including bank workers, had lost their lives during the demonetisation exercise.

The government had so far maintained that it had not received any official report on such deaths.

Modi’s announcement of the demonetisation of high-value notes wiped out nearly 86 per cent of the total number of notes in circulation.

Jaitley further informed the House that Rs79.65 billion and Rs49.12 billion had been spent on the printing of banknotes in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 fiscal years, respectively, compared to just Rs34.21 billion spent from 2015-16 — the year prior to demonetisation.

“In addition, Rs109 crore (Rs1.09 billion), Rs147 crore (Rs1.47 billion) and Rs115 crore (Rs1.15 billion) were spent on remittance of currency in the year 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18, respectively,” Jaitely told the Rajya Sabha.

The revelation followed a question seeking details on costs incurred by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during the exercise.