Post RBI report, Chidambaram slams BJP on note ban

Referring to an RBI report on note ban of November 2016, Chidambaram said every rupee of the Rs 15.42 lakh crore (barring a small sum of Rs 13,000 crore) had come back to the RBI.

“Remember who had said that Rs 3 lakh crore would not come back and that would be a gain for the government! I suspect that the bulk of the Rs 13,000 crore is the currency in Nepal and Bhutan and some that was lost or destroyed.”

He said, “So the government and RBI actually demonetised only Rs 13,000 crore and the country paid a huge price.”

Chidambaram said over 100 lives were lost and 15 crore daily wage earners lost their livelihood for several weeks post demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.“Thousands of SME units were shut down. Lakhs of jobs were destroyed. Indian economy lost 1.5 per cent of GDP in terms of growth. That alone was a loss of Rs 2.25 lakh crore a year,” said the Congress veteran.