- On Thursday, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned four times until 3 pm.
- The House witnessed an uproar over the Opposition’s demand for the Prime Minister’s presence in Parliament.
- Economic Affairs Secretary made five key announcements, including the exchange limit to be reduced from Rs 4,500 to Rs 2,000 from 18 November.
- Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal addressed a joint rally panning the government for its policy of demonetisation.
- Toll suspension extended till 24 November midnight across all National Highways.
Point of No Return from Demonetisation, Says Chidambaram
Speaking to CNBC Awaaz, former CEO and Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland in India Meera Sanyal spoke of the repercussions of demonetisations.
The government has assumed that the entire cash economy is black economy and what they have done in one stroke is suck the liquidity of millions of businesses, as a result smaller businesses will suffer terrible losses, people will lose their jobs.
Meanwhile, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram told CNN in an earlier interview that it is a point of no return.
There’s no way out of this. You have already broken the egg, hoping that you will make an omelette, but when it doesn’t turn out to be an omelette, you can’t make the egg whole again. The first order effect in farming will be that there’s going to be no money to buy seeds and fertilisers in the sowing season which means vast acres of untilled land. People don’t have money to pay wages, so employees will be laid off.
He disagreed with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley remark on the advantageous effects of demonetisation on banks and thereby the economy.
Jaitley had said, “Banks will have far more money to support interest on trade, interest rates will come down and Indian economy will go up.”
Chidambaram said Jaitley’s assertion is “clearly speculative”, maintaining that Jaitley has made his claims by the higher number of deposits that people are being forced to make in banks only to withdraw it later.
“The Ambanis and Adanis Knew About Demonetisation”, BJP MLA Says on Tape
Referring to a video footage of a BJP MLA saying “Ambanis and Adanis knew about demonetisation, members of Congress have demanded to know why no action has been taken against the MLA if his claims were false.
Bhutanese Currency Being Used as Legal Tender in Northeast
Along the border regions between Assam and Bhutan in Kokrajhar district where Bhutanese currency is generally used for transactions cross-border dealings, Bhutanese money is now being used as a legal tender.
For the lack of ATMs within 50-60 km radius, people are being compelled to exchange Bhutanese currencies against demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Although Bhutanese currency is equivalent to Indian currency, after demonetisation, an Indian note of Rs 500 is getting exchanged for only Rs 400 worth of Bhutanese currency.
The Northeast Today quoted locals as saying,
We are being forced to use Bhutanese currency in these parts. If the government could send mobile money vending machines, it would help us immensely.
“Situation Already Normalised”, Says Finance Minister
In an interview with ANI, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley lauded the banks across the country for managing the panic situation over the week. He said with the introduction of the indelible ink, the crowds have thinned down and “there’s no panic”.
The situation has already normalised. It’s a commendable task that the banks have done. I expect every political party to support this huge effort, because it will mean that India’s formal economy will increase. Banks will have far more money to support the economy. Unnecessary panic has been spread, didn’t expect Chief Ministers to spread panic.
He also criticised the Opposition to creating “unnecessary panic”.
We said we are ready for a debate, the debate itself showed that the opposition had very little to say, so now they’re running away from the debate. They have compared this to Uri attack but what is the government’s vested interest in demonetisation? This is only to make the economy cleaner.
On questions of the Prime Minister’s absence in the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley said justified “the government is a collective effort”, maintaining that the PM doesn’t have to always respond to all queries himself.