Demonetisation a reckless step, organised loot: Manmohan Singh

Describing the BJP-led governments demonetisation exercise as a reckless step, former prime minister Manmohan Singh today said scrapping higher value currency notes was organised loot and legalised plunder. None its objectives were achieved, Singh said during an interactive session on the current state of the economy with businesspersons and traders. “Demonetisation was organised loot and legalised plunder,” he said during his visit to poll-bound Gujarat. Hitting out at the government over the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax, Singh said compliance requirements under GST had become a nightmare for small businesses.
He also criticised the Centres ambitious Ahmedabad- Mumbai bullet train project and dubbed it an exercise in vanity. Singhs visit comes a day before Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is likely to tour Surat on the anniversary of the governments announcement of the demonetisation exercise.
Highlighting the impact of demonetisation on jobs, informal sector, farmers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) alike, Singh said that the move coupled with GST would push people back into poverty after the UPA-led government had brought 140 million people out of poverty. Citing examples of Surat’s textile industry, Morbi’s ceramic industry and Rajkot’s auto components industry, Singh said that the domestic industry could not cope with the impact on the economy, resulting into China benefiting through increased imports.
“In Surat alone, 60000 looms have been discarded since July. 21000 jobs have been lost in just one industrial cluster in Surat. In the rest of the country, it is equally bad if not worse. The unprecedented growth in imports from China can be attributed to demonetisation and GST. These twin blows damaged India’s SME sector and our businesses had to run to Chinese imports at the cost of Indian jobs,” Singh said. Taking a further dig at GST, Singh said that the current structure was a “great departure” from Congress’ vision and has “transformed into a mess”.
“Government did not pay any advice to Congress, neither in Parliament nor private consultations. GST has become a nightmare for small businessmen. Needless confusion has been caused by GST which has sowed deep-rooted fear of tax terrorism. At a time when the economy slowed down despite global conditions, tax terrorism has led to lowest growth in private investment in last 25 years,” he stated. Singh also called the Modi government’s ambitious bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai an exercise of vanity while stating that it would neither benefit the 65 million Gujaratis nor the rest of the country.
“The Rs 88,000 crore soft loan may seem like easy money but it will still need to be repaid. Gujarati entrepreneurs know very well that if a deal is too good to be true then it is probably not good,” Singh said. Singh also maintained that the Gujarat government was the worst performer in settling claims of title deeds for tribals at an average of 44 per cent in the state as against 87 per cent nationally. “Congress ushered in right to fair compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement by undoing 123-year-old imbalance through Land Acquisition Act. However, Gujarat government has taken controversial decisions to ease norms to sell forests land to industries. After decades, the time has come for people of Gujarat to repose their faith in Congress which will work with 65 million Gujaratis to reach new heights,” Singh said in his address.