Demonetisation: Not possible to isolate its impact on GDP, no official reports of job loss, says govt

New Delhi: It is not possible to isolate the impact of demonetisation on India’s GDP as economic growth of a country depends on a number of factors, including monetary ones, the government said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 8 November last year had announced demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in a major assault on black money, fake currency and corruption. “The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country depends on a number of factors including monetary factors (which is partly reflected by demonetisation). “Therefore, it is not possible to isolate the impact of demonetisation on India’s GDP,” Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in reply to the Rajya Sabha. [caption id=“attachment_3827785” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] As per the latest estimates released by Central Statistical Office (CSO) in May 2017, the growth rate of GDP at constant market prices for 2015-16 and 2016-17 was 8 percent and 7.1 percent respectively, he said. To another query on whether the government has identified the number of households that have lost their jobs due to demonetisation since 8 November, Gangwar said: “No such official report has been received.” Replying to separate query, the minister said that as on 7 July, 2017, 8.19 crore individuals including 6.20 crores women have availed loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY). Of this, 2.46 crore are new entrepreneurs. Gangwar said in another reply that Reserve Bank of India has informed there is no specific circular asking banks to compensate customers for theft of articles from bank lockers. “Nevertheless banks have been advised by RBI that it would be the responsibility of the banks to ensure that the lockers remain safe and there is no negligence in the matter of safe guarding the lockers that could render the banks concerned liable by locker holders,” he said. The minister further informed that 344 incidence of robbery, theft, dacoity and burglaries reported by State Bank of India, followed by Bank of Baroda (188), ICICI Bank Ltd (103) and HDFC Bank Ltd (67) during the last three years (from 2014-15 to 2016-17).