NEW DELHI: Congress warned that the crisis arising out of the currency ban had hit the rural, unorganised and agriculture sectors the hardest and the negative impact would last for at least one year.
Congress spokesman
Jairam Ramesh
said PM
Narendra Modi's
demonetisation decision was not dictated by economic reasons but by the political desire to "create tremors" to send a message that he had taken a momentous decision.
"Prospects of recovery in the rural, agriculture and unorganised economy in the next 12 months get very remote. I feel there is not going to be any growth in rural, agriculture and unorganised sector economy," he told reporters.
"My considered view is that in the next six to 12 months, the impact on GDP will not be positive," he added.
The Rajya Sabha MP said demonetisation would bring more cash to banks but raised the questions about big defaulters earning reprieve from banks. "We do not want the cash infusion into banks to write off Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi and all the other NPAs that have been accumulated. If that happens, and I suspect that is going to happen, it is a mockery of the November 8 statement," he added.
Attacking the PM and the finance minister over the move, he said while the government talked of the Rs 1.25 lakh crore
black money
unearthed during the first two-and-a-half years of Modi government, it did not talk of the Rs 1.33 lakh crore black money unearthed during the last two years of the UPA government.
Ramesh said it was "wrong" to say that the UPA government did nothing on the issue of black money.
"Prime minister says that NDA carried out an attack on black money. In two-and-a-half years, they have brought out Rs 1.25 lakh crore of black money. During the last two years of UPA, black money worth Rs 1.33 lakh crore was unearthed. When the PM says that the UPA did nothing, he is completely wrong," Ramesh said. He also rubbished talk of demonetisation ending fake currency, saying counterfeit was just 0.02% of the total currency in circulation.
He said there were enough reports which said that black money was mostly stored in real estate, gold and offshore accounts.
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