Taking a dig at the government, Chidamabaram said RBI officials are busy counting the notes physically.
currency overnight, Chidambaram spoke of a large number of ATMs still not functioning.
He referred to a village in the national capital territoty which was declared as the first digital village in the region and said "you go there and the people ask 'What digital?' It is very difficult to get away with a lie. The best way to do so is to utter the biggest lie." Taking a dig at the government, Chidamabaram said RBI officials are busy counting the notes physically. "You speak about digitisation. First, teach that to the RBI. Every rupee has come back, except in Bhutan, Nepal and NRIs, whose money can't come now, because you breached your promise to them." He also asked "if Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes are the cause of such major ills, how does Rs 2,000 note put an end to it.
If 10 per cent of bank officials were dishonest earlier, now you've made all bank officials dishonest." "It has now become easier for people used to carrying briefcases of notes as they will have to carry a smaller brief case, he said wryly.
Chidambaram gaves examples of countries which still uses cash including the US, Autralia and Austria.
"A young lady wants to buy lingerie. Why should there be a record? A young couple wants to take a secret holiday. Why should that be recorded? I want to give money to my daughter- in-law for her expenses without the knowledge of my son. Why should there be a record? An adult wants to buy adult diapers.
Why should there be a record of that?
"There are serious issues of privacy are involved which are respected in any democracy," he said, adding that people can't be told to go to the village fair and buy potatoes and tomatoes for Rs 7.50 and use credit cards.
"Don't even try to defend demonetisation. At least spare us the ignominy of listening to this defence," he said.
Maintaining that the budget has been "a great disappointment", he said "there is no overarching vision and goal. It has no strategy. By cutting expenditure, you've shown that your government has no empathy for the poor. Government must lean towards the poor. After all this, what have you achieved? You can't achieve your fiscal goal of 3 per cent.
This Budget is a demonstrable failure of economic management." Talking about RBI's decision not to cut policy rate, Chidambaram said it shows the Budget has no credibility.
"RBI does not believe your numbers. The Governor has said they are moving from an accommodative position to a neutral position. He has no faith in the story that you are projecting. All bank chairpersons, who ordinarily sing the RBI's praises say there is no room to cut the lending rate.
How will investment take place then? Capital is flowing out, investment intentions are declining, credit growth to industry is negative how is your industry going to grow?" (More)
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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