Initiating the discussion on the 2017-18 General Budget, he accused the government of “fumbling, bumbling, scrambling” and inventing a new narrative every day.
Observing that he saw his first Rs 2,000 note four days after it came into circulation, he said there were many who were caught with crores worth new notes stashed away.
“This is the biggest scam of 2016 … Where did they get these notes from? Did these go directly from the RBI press to them,” Chidambaram asked.
“This means that corruption and black money have thrived after demonetisation… The NSSO says 15 crore people in this country are daily wage earners. 25.5 crore workers are daily income earners. 40 crore people were completely devastated by demonetisation for eight weeks. These 40 crore people may forgive you, but they won’t forget the experience,” he said.
Questioning the remonetisation process, he asked “why should you demonetise and then remonetise” and said that the government has replenished Rs 9 lakh crore worth of new currency notes as against Rs 17 lakh crore old notes that went out of circulation.
Chidambaram said the government had inherited an economy that, in the last two years of the UPA rule, had grown by 6.1 and 6.9 per cent respectively.
