Utterly wasteful, unproductive exercise: Cong slams govt over demonetisation

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday slammed the government over the 2016 demonetisation move and alleged that it was an "utterly wasteful, unproductive exercise" to feed the "megalomaniacal ego of one man".

The Opposition party's attack came a day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday said that nearly 97.38 per cent of the Rs 2,000 notes have been returned to the banking system, and only about Rs 9,330 crore worth of the notes are still with the public.

In a post on X, Congress General Secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said, "Remember the fanfare with which the Prime Minister first demonetised 500 and 1,000 rupee notes overnight, along with the introduction of the 2,000 rupee note?" "It was hailed as 'historic', 'transformative', 'a game changer', 'masterstroke' and so on. The reality is 99.3% of the demonetised notes came back into the system. None of the objectives, especially destroying black money and clamping down on terror funding were achieved," Ramesh said.

Instead, demonetisation along with a badly designed GST and an unplanned, sudden COVID-19 lockdown were a triple blow that micro and small businesses never really recovered from, he said.

"Many businesses and factories have either shut down or downsized. While the stock market is booming, retail markets on the streets are yet to revive," the Congress general secretary said.

Now, the RBI reports that over 97 per cent of these new 2,000 banknotes that were recently withdrawn have been returned, he said.

"What an utterly wasteful, unproductive exercise this whole drama turned into — all just to feed the megalomaniacal ego of one man!" Ramesh said.

On May 19, the RBI announced the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 denomination bank notes from circulation.

"The total value of Rs 2,000 bank notes in circulation, which amounted to Rs 3.56 lakh crore as at the close of business on May 19, 2023, when the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 bank notes was announced, has declined to Rs 9,330 crore as at the close of business on December 29, 2023," the RBI said in a statement.

The Rs 2,000 bank notes were introduced in November 2016 following the demonetisation of the then-prevailing Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 bank notes.