Demonetisation of Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes anniversary: On Facebook, Arun Jaitley lists achievements; top 10 quotes
Today is the anniversary of demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes that constituted 86 per cent of the currency in circulation. In effect, Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes were banned. It was announced on November 8, 2016 by PM Narendra Modi and thereby delivered a shock to the system akin to the one by former PM Indira Gandhi when she ordered the bank nationalisation drive in the late 1960s. It has been dubbed as a great success by the PM Narendra Modi led NDA government in achieving its aims. The reason for ordering demonetisation was to fight black money. Today, was the second anniversary and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday took to Facebook to defend the demonetisation drive and lambasted doubters who called it a 'blunder'. Demonetisation led to immense shortage of cash for individuals and businesses alike.
Arun Jaitley blasted the 'prophets of doom' and said that they have been proven wrong and the evidence lies in the increase in tax base (80% jump in income tax return filers to 6.86 crore), greater formalisation of the economy, increase in digital transactions and more resources being available for poor and for building better infrastructure and India retaining the fastest growing economy tag for the fifth year in a row. "What has happened to prophets of doom who said India's GDP will decline by at least 2 per cent. For the fifth year running India will be the fastest growing (large) economy in the world. It is continuing to happen. So prophets of doom have been proved wrong and conclusively proved wrong," Jaitley said. Here is what Arun Jaitley said about demonetisation in his Facebook blog titled, 'Impact of Demonetisation':
Arun Jaitley: Demonetisation
"Demonetisation is a key step in a chain of important decisions taken by the Government to formalise the economy. The Government first targeted the black money outside India. Asset holders were asked to bring this money back on payment of penal tax. Those who failed to do so are being prosecuted under the Black Money Act. Details of all accounts and assets abroad which have reached the Government, resulted in action against the violators." Image Source: IANS
Arun Jaitley: Enormity of cash deposited
"The enormity of cash deposited and identified with the owner resulted in suspected 17.42 lakh account holders from whom the response has been received online through non-invasive method." Image Source: IANS
Arun Jaitley: Five years of this government
"By the time the first five years of this government are over, we will be close to doubling the assessee base." Image Source: IANS
Arun Jaitley: Government resources
Demonetisation has strengthened the economy and increased the government resources to fund poverty alleviation and infrastructure development programme. Image Source: IANS
Arun Jaitley: Global stress
"Even when there was global stress, we still manage to have respectable growth rates and we had the courage because of leadership of the Prime Minister that we took decisive steps and these steps which are not economically correct, which have helped the system in the long run; and the long run, in this case, does not mean generations." Image Source: IANS
Arun Jaitley: There is a long distance we still have to cover
"Of course, there is a long distance we still have to cover and I am certain in the coming years the advantage of these movements in the right direction will strengthen the economy." Image Source: IANS
Arun jaitley: Digital transactions
"Getting it into the formal economy and making the holders pay tax was the broader objective. The system required to be shaken in order to make India move from cash to digital transactions. This would obviously have an impact on higher tax revenue and a higher tax base." Image Source: IANS
Arun Jaitley: Impact of Demonetisation
"The impact of Demonetisation has been felt on collection of personal income tax. Its collections were higher in Financial Year 2018-19 (till 31-10-2018) compared to the previous year by 20.2%. Even in the corporate tax the collections are 19.5% higher." Image Source: IANS
Arun jaitley: Lending capacity of the banks
"While those depositing cash in excess of their known sources of income faced punitive actions, larger deposits improved the lending capacity of the banks. Also, a lot of this money was diverted to mutual funds for further investments and it became a part of the formal system." Image Source: IANS
Arun Jaitley: Unified Payments Interface
The share of the indigenously developed payment system of unified payments interface (UPI) and RuPay cards has reached 65 per cent of the payments done through debit and credit cards. Image Source: IANS