New Delhi: Launching a strong attack on the Congress, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the party’s “scandalous record” is making it extremely uncomfortable with the Modi government’s anti-corruption campaign of which the demonetisation of high-value currency is a cornerstone.
Junking of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, he said, will help the world’s fastest growing major economy to move towards less cash economy and digital payments that will help shore up tax revenues and check evasions.
Besides, restrictions on cash spending together with the mandatory furnishing of PAN will help bring down the level of corruption, he said, adding that the transient problems arising from demonetisation are being addressed by rapidly replacing the junked currency with valid banknotes.
Amid daily barbs by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jaitley said the party during its 10-year continuous rule from 2004 to 2014 did not take a single step either against corruption or black money.
Corruption scandals – ranging from 2G spectrum scam to coal block allocation to Commonwealth Games to deal with AugustaWestland for procuring VVIP helicopters – peaked during the UPA regime, he alleged.
“Each of the scandals which are even today discussed in public space belongs to that period. Given this scandalous record, it is not surprising that Congress party is extremely uncomfortable with the anti-corruption campaign that the NDA led by Narendra Modi has launched,” Jaitley said.
High denomination notes, as the percentage of total currency in circulation, increased from a mere 36% to over 80% during UPA regime, he said in oblique reference to ill-gotten money usually being hoarded in high denominations.
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“There are economic costs of dealing in cash, there are social costs of dealing in cash. These are the costs which system has to bear,” he said.
Demonetisation, he said, is part of the system overhaul by the NDA government.
“It is our strategy that from high cash-dominated economy we should become a less cash economy where the amount of paper currency comes down,” he said.
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Cash will exist but there would be greater digital payments.
“Notwithstanding some transient problem which people have to face, we are now rapidly completing remonetisation exercise. Everyday RBI is injecting a large amount of currency into the banking system as part of its remonetisation exercise. Significant amounts are going to be injected in next three weeks which are gradually bringing the pressure down,” he said.
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