Chandigarh, December 2nd, 2016: Addressing the inaugural session of the 14th edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Mr. Arun Jaitley discussed the impacts of the 'DeMonetisation' of INR 500 and INR 1000 currency notes. He termed the moved as 'ReMonetisation' rather than 'DeMonetization' and said that he believes that once the process is complete and the GST is implemented, these would hugely impact Indian business and the Indian way of life. He said that the country would see more digitized expenditure, a taxation system which is far more efficient and very difficult to evade.
Addressing the common sentiment on the loopholes in the execution of the Remonetisation process, he said that process is of enormous magnitude and would take its time. He said that the execution required the government to reach out to 1 lakh 33 thousand bank branches and 1 lakh 55 thousand post-offices. There were about 200,000 ATMs that needed to be recalibrated and more than 1.25 lakh 'bank-mitras' who were to be touched-base with. He said that he could pre-empt the problems that would arise with the remonetisation process, but it were severely outweighed by the positive long-term impact on the economy.
Mr. Arun Jaitley said that the people at large have been extremely cooperative and have by-and-large supported the move. He said that the fact that there have been no reports of any massive social unrest, proves that the process of remonetisation has been socially accepted. Predicting the impact of the remonetisation process on the economy, Mr. Jaitley said that the move would result in a shrinkage in the level of paper currency in circulation. He added that it might be tough to believe, but there are 80 crore debit and credit cards are in circulation, out of which 45 crores are in active circulation. These factors together would contribute to a higher level of digitization of expenditures.
Concluding the session Mr. Arun Jaitley said that the remonetisation process would bring an element of transparency in political funding. He further added that "Black money has been a norm in India for seven decades. We want to confront it and create a new normal."
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