The Bank Employees’ Federation of India (BEFI) on Thursday said the demonetisation drive could not achieve its stated goals of arresting fake currency, black money, and terrorism.
In the wake of the Reserve Bank of India’s revelation that as much as 15.28 lakh crore bank notes, out of the 15.44 lakh crore currency notes that had been demonetised, had returned to banks, the federation called the government’s bluff on the ill-advised move.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s fresh statement that black money was not the target of the demonetisation drive amounted to laughing at the common man, the federation said.
In a statement here, BEFI general secretary S.S. Anil and president T. Narendran criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that the move was meant to cut black money at the root.
“It, however, so turned out that the move put the commoner through unending woes. The GDP was hit and went down by 2%. The farming sector was badly affected too. The industries and labour sectors weren’t any better,” the statement added.
The federation also demanded that Mr. Jaitley explain as to why the government failed to make enough preparations before the demonetisation drive if curbing black money was not among the objectives of the hasty move.