Political News: Note ban will be marked among worst policy blunders: Jairam Ramesh

Demonetisation, which was announced on this day in 2016, will be marked in the world’s economic history as among the “worst policy blunders”, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Monday. He also claimed that the decision along with a rushed goods and services tax (GST) “destroyed the backbone of the Indian economy”.

On this day in 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to ban currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

“With every passing year, it is becoming even more clear that 8.11.2016 will be marked in the world’s economic history among the worst policy blunders anywhere. Demonetisation along with rushed GST destroyed the backbone of the Indian economy — the MSME and informal sectors especially,” Ramesh tweeted.

The Congress leader along with his tweet also shared a graph by former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and it was titled “Despite digital boom, cash is back with a vengeance”.

“First, we were told demonetisation meant cashless economy. Soon the ‘sarvagyani’ changed track and said not cashless but less cash. Now, cash in circulation is above pre-demonetisation levels,” he said while taking a swipe at the prime minister.