New Delhi: The government and Congress exchanged sharp words on Wednesday with finance minister Arun Jaitley questioning his predecessor P Chidambaram's record in combating black money and the Congress lawmaker doubting the utility of the measure as a means to check corruption.
Picking holes in the Modi government's demonetisation measure, Congress asked how the replacement of currency notes of Rs 1,000 with the higher denomination of Rs 2,000 would help curb black money. "If new income or wealth is unaccounted, will it not be hidden in Rs 2,000 notes? The government must explain this apparent puzzle," Chidambaram said. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi targetted PM Narendra Modi more directly, saying real culprits who had stashed black money were "sitting tight" while lives of farmers, small shopkeepers and housewives had "been thrown into utter chaos".
Responding to Rahul's sarcastic remarks, Jaitley said the Congress lawmaker must "apply his mind" and understand that those in farming would not face any tax whether they keep money at home or in banks. He denied Rahul's charge of the common man being inconvenienced and said Chidambaram's estimation of the cost of printing new Rs 2,000 notes was "highly exaggerated".
Chidambaram, Jaitley said, had the privilege of being finance minister thrice. "It would have been better if he had taken any step to curtail black money. As far as Rahul Gandhi is concerned, he should understand that any person, especially poor, will not face any inconvenience," Jaitley said.
Chidambaram said while Congress supported any move to check black money, the latest policy had raised serious questions . He called it "an exaggeration" that bulk of the black money was used for terror financing.
He said UPA had decided against a similar move after it was felt the "economic gains were not great". The former finance minister reminded that Janata Party government had demonetized high denomination notes in 1978 but the move failed as they were re-introduced and the volume of unaccounted money increased.
He wondered what would be the gain of the exercise if a bulk of old Rs 500 notes were legally exchanged for new ones.
Picking holes in the Modi government's demonetisation measure, Congress asked how the replacement of currency notes of Rs 1,000 with the higher denomination of Rs 2,000 would help curb black money. "If new income or wealth is unaccounted, will it not be hidden in Rs 2,000 notes? The government must explain this apparent puzzle," Chidambaram said. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi targetted PM Narendra Modi more directly, saying real culprits who had stashed black money were "sitting tight" while lives of farmers, small shopkeepers and housewives had "been thrown into utter chaos".
Responding to Rahul's sarcastic remarks, Jaitley said the Congress lawmaker must "apply his mind" and understand that those in farming would not face any tax whether they keep money at home or in banks. He denied Rahul's charge of the common man being inconvenienced and said Chidambaram's estimation of the cost of printing new Rs 2,000 notes was "highly exaggerated".
Chidambaram, Jaitley said, had the privilege of being finance minister thrice. "It would have been better if he had taken any step to curtail black money. As far as Rahul Gandhi is concerned, he should understand that any person, especially poor, will not face any inconvenience," Jaitley said.
Chidambaram said while Congress supported any move to check black money, the latest policy had raised serious questions . He called it "an exaggeration" that bulk of the black money was used for terror financing.
He said UPA had decided against a similar move after it was felt the "economic gains were not great". The former finance minister reminded that Janata Party government had demonetized high denomination notes in 1978 but the move failed as they were re-introduced and the volume of unaccounted money increased.
He wondered what would be the gain of the exercise if a bulk of old Rs 500 notes were legally exchanged for new ones.