Rs 15.44 lakh crore, were rendered invalid, and with the capacity of all four printing facilities if they operated round-the-clock being 300 crore pieces a month, to replace all 2,400 crore notes, it will take eight months, he said.
At the end of three months post-demonetisation, half of the ATMs were not working and “most ATMs don’t have currency,” Chidambaram alleged, adding that everyday 11 crore people were standing in queues for hours to withdraw their own money.
As to government’s aim of having a 100 per cent cashless economy, he said 80 per cent of transactions in Germany and Austria still take place in cash, 60 per cent in Australia, 56 per cent in Canada and 46 per cent in the US.
“History books will record along with Zimbabwe, North Korea, Libya…India demonetised its currency…It is a shame…May be this government thought these are the most prosperous countries in the world,” he added.
“First they talked about demonetisation and now they are saying remonetisation. Of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore worth of money demonetised every rupee has come back to RBI. Now you are remonetising….this is not ‘notebandi’ but ‘notebadli’,” Chidambaram said.
He said would have resigned as Finance Minister had the Prime Minister of the day insisted on demonetisation.
“They (Government) said this is to put an end to corruption. I looked at the new notes, has it been written (on them) not valid for bribe giving?” Chidambaram quipped.
“We delivered 7.5 per cent average growth over 10 years (during UPA rule). Here they (NDA) have impacted India’s growth,” the former finance minister said.
(This article has not been edited by DNA’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
Source: dnaindia.com