New Delhi: Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday slammed Government’s decision to abolish existing Rs 500 and 1000 currency notes.
Chidambaram claimed that a “non-monetised” economy exists in India all of which can’t be can’t black money. “I don’t encourage or support unaccounted wealth or income, but there’s a non-monetised economy, you can’t call it black money,” Chidambaram said.
He also raised questions over introducing Rs. 2000 notes. “I don’t understand why Rs 2000 notes have been introduced when Rs 500/1000 have been demonetised?” Chidambaram said.
He said that money, which exists in bulk, is legitimate. “Bulk of this money is legitimate money; Govt and banks owe a duty to people to exchange it quickly,” Chidambaram said adding that putting people to “inconvenience and harassment” will be counter-productive. He also claimed that “empirical evidence” is there to tell that unaccounted wealth is largely stashed away in construction, jewellery.
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However, Chidambaram asserts that Congress supports the decision, but have to see if the objectives are achieved. “We agree the objectives are sound but will have to wait and see whether or not they are achieved, the test will be how quickly the old notes will be replaced by new when they are legally tendered in banks,” said the former Finance Minister.
Apparently hinting towards the same decision during his tenure, Chidambaram said that various govt considered it but was dropped considering economic gains will be very small & inconvenience will be very large.
Chidambaram’s comments came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 bank notes as illegal denominations in a bid to curb black money in the country on Tuesday evening.
During his sudden address to the nation, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday also said that some ATMs will be shut for two days.
To avoid the chaos in common public, the government is taking up several measures and suspension of toll tax is one of them. Besides this, the notes will be accepted across all the government hospitals in the country. Modi, in his address, said that the decision will create momentary trouble for the general public, but its effect will be significant.
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The decision has drawn mixed reactions from the general public. While leaders like Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Mamta Banerjee criticised the decision, some like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar come out in support of it.
Video Courtesy: INC