Demonetisation will not address the problem of black money, say social activists

New Delhi: Terming Centre’s demonetisation move as “misconceived”, a group of over 150 eminent citizens on Tuesday said the decision will not address the problem of black money as it has not taken any step to curb generation of black money and “inexplicably” introduced Rs 2000 note. [caption id=“attachment_3107190” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “…the decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes is misconceived and will not address the problem of black money,” a statement issued by the citizens including social activists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey and renowned lawyer Prashant Bhushan said. “If it is the Government’s case that high value denomination currency is used to hoard black money, then the decision to reissue new Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes does not make sense. Issuing even higher value Rs 2000 note is completely inexplicable and puzzling,” they added. The signatories noted that black money is generated through evasion of taxes on income from lawful activities and money generated from illegal activities. “In the absence of steps to curb the generation of black money, demonetisation is a futile exercise, as it proved to be in 1978,” they said. They also questioned government’s intentions and sought clarification on state-run banks’ decision to waive off Rs 1.14 lakh crore of bad debts over the last three years “at a time when loans worth lakhs of crores of rupees are still outstanding”. They also demanded the government to declare names of beneficiaries of the waiver and also those who have stashed money in banks abroad. “We demand the government to ensure common people have immediate access to enough money to pay for their daily needs…failing which, we demand the rollback of demonetisation,” they said.