Congress: Will PM Modi apologise for lying on demonetisation?

The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over demonetisation, saying that an RBI report has proved again that it was a "disaster of epic proportions" and asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi will apologise for "lying" on the issue.

"The RBI report again proves that demonetisation was a Modi-made disaster of epic proportions! 99.3% of the demonetised money returns! Modi, in his 2017 Independence Day speech, made tall claims of Rs 3 lakh crore coming back to the system! Modiji, will you apologise for that lie now?" tweeted Congress Communications In charge Randeep Singh Surjewala.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Wednesday that as per its report for 2017-18, on completion of the process of verification of scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, it was found that Rs 15.31 lakh crore of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore -- or 99.3 % -- in demonetised currency in circulation at the time of demonetisation on November 8, 2016, had come back to the banking system.

The party also said the RBI report on demonetisation was a "damning indictment of the macro-economic management of the country".

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said the RBI has come out with its annual report for the year 2017-18 and the picture is even grim on demonetisation.

Tewari asked what did this grand "Tughlaqi Farman" really achieve. "It wiped out the MSME sector, cottage industry and crores of daily wage-earners lost their jobs. The Indian economy lost 1.5 % in terms of GDP growth," he said.

"The RBI says that out of the total SBNs in circulation—Specified Bank Notes (which in this case is 500 and 1,000 currency notes), as on November 8, 2016 was Rs 15.41 lakh crore. Out of that Rs 15.31 lakh crore is back in to the banking system.

"So this means that the entire demonetisation exercise yielded a demonetisation of only Rs 10,000 crore," Tewari added.

"Now what remains is the remaining 0.70 %. But, the remaining currency seized by law enforcement authorities, money which the District Co-operative Banks have collected and Indian currency being held in Nepal and Bhutan are not part of the 99.30 currency which have come back," said Tewari.

"It is part of that 0.70 % currency (Rs 10,000 crore)," he added.

The leader said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said demonetisation had three objectives—proscribe terror financing, eliminate black money and eradicate fake currency. "None of the objectives have been fulfilled."