New Delhi: The government’s drive against black money and the success of the demonetization drive figured prominently in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech on Tuesday.
Modi said Rs 3 lakh crore, which was earlier not included in the banking system, got deposited after the ban on high value notes in November last year.
Interestingly, Modi said this number was computed by “outside experts" as neither the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) nor the government has yet given out the exact figure of money deposited during or right after demonetisation.
“Rs 3 lakh crore of additional money came in… the government didn’t do this research, outside experts say this… this money came into the banking system because of demonetisation," Modi said while hailing the drive as an example of what Indians can achieve.
An economist with a multinational bank said the figure was of the rise in bank deposits and is not necessarily black money.
“This number also includes money that was not reported, but not necessarily black money. It could be money that your grandmother or grandfather kept under the mattress for a rainy day, but which they had to deposit after the notes were demonetized," explained the economist, who wished to remain anonymous.
Pronab Sen, former Secretary of the Statistics Ministry said the Prime Minister may have added the outside experts caveat because officially the government has not yet released the exact figures.
On November 9, 2016 the Prime Minister announced denomination of Rs 500 and 1,000 notes. This constituted around 86% of the total currency in circulation, amounting to Rs 15.4 lakh crore. Some unofficial reports indicate that 97% of the demonetized currency made its way back.
Harping on his government’s efforts towards eradicating black money, Modi said that in the last 3 years Rs 1.25 lakh crore of illicit cash had been unearthed. The Prime Minister also said that Rs 1.75 lakh crore that came into banks post Demonetization is “under suspicion" and the Income Tax department is investigating this cash.
Modi said that 18 lakh Income Tax assesses were found to have disproportionate income and a quarter of these have provided an explanation for this and accepted their mistake.
Modi also said that around 3 lakh shell companies were found to be engaging in hawala transactions and the registrations of 1.75 lakh companies had been cancelled.
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