With one judge dissenting on the day the Supreme Court upheld Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2016 repeal, former officials expressed mixed views on the move.
Rajiv Kumar, former deputy chairman of the government think tank Niti Aayog, told NDTV on Monday that he does not believe the banknote ban has achieved all of its original objectives. One of the positives, he said, is digitization.
The Supreme Court upheld the banknote ban in a 4-to-1 ruling, saying it “irrelevant” whether the objectives of the nighttime ban were met.
The results of the abolition were “quite mixed,” Kumar said in an exclusive interview with NDTV.
“Six years later, I am not sure about it. I was convinced that it was worth it when it was launched. I won’t repeat the fact that we’ve made progress, but we’ve pretty much achieved our goal,” he said. You are asked if it is worth it.
When announcing the ban on banknotes in November 2016, Prime Minister Modi made it clear that the ban was part of a larger plan to curb black money and the terrorism it entails.
Six years later, however, the amount of fake currency in circulation is far beyond what it was in 2016.
Mr Kumar said: , I think it was not achieved. “
The total value of the currency in March last year rose 89 percent to 3.105721 million rupees compared to 1.641571 million rupees in March 2016, the finance ministry recently told parliament.
According to data shared by the ministry in Lok Sabha, the amount of currency in terms of banknotes in circulation surged 44% to reach 130,533 million in March 2022.
Meanwhile, the value of digital payments surged from Rs 6,952 crore in 2016 to Rs 1,200 crore in October 2022.
The Supreme Court’s majority decision argued that the government had the power to abolish all series of banknotes and due process was taken while banning 500 rupee and 1000 rupee notes in 2016. This is a reasonable way to eradicate black money and fake currency. His 52-day period for exchanging notes was not unreasonable, the judge said.
In a strongly dissenting ruling, BV Nagarathna Judge said the banknote ban was “infringing and illegal”.