Add another Rs 50,000 crore as cost of demonetisation, says P Chidambaram

Former Finance Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Friday took a potshot at the Centre over its demonetisation move saying Rs 50,000 crore should be added to the cost of the note ban exercise that was undertaken in 2016.

The statement from Chidambaram came after a Reserve Bank of India’s announcement that it would pay Rs 30,659 crore as dividend to the government in 2016-17, which is less than half of the dividend transferred a year earlier. "Cost of demonetisation: Add another Rs 50,000 crore revealed by RBI," he said via Twitter.

Disclose the breakdown of Rs 50,000 crore "loss/expenditure", the Congress leader asked the RBI.

In an another tweet, he said "Will RBI reveal breakdown of the Rs 50000 crore loss/expenditure?"

Cost of demonetisation: Add another Rs 50,000 crore revealed by RBI

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 11, 2017

Will RBI reveal breakdown of the Rs 50000 crore loss/expenditure?

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 11, 2017

ALSO READ: Congress displays two types of Rs 500 notes in Parliament, terms it 'biggest scam of century'

The Opposition doesn’t miss an opportunity to attack the government on the demonetisation issue. Earlier, the Opposition on August 8 jolted the Parliament by displaying two different 500 rupee notes issued by the RBI.

Alleging that it is the biggest scam of the century, the Congress said that the notes were of different sizes and designs. They displayed the images of two 500 rupee notes.

Congress leader, Kapil Sibal targeted the government saying "Today we have discovered why the government took the demonetisation decision. The RBI prints two kinds of notes in different sizes and designs."

ALSO READ | Demonetisation ropes in new tax payers, ITRs go up by 25.3% in FY 2016-17: CBDT