Demo succeeded in unearthing black money, preventing corruption: Jaitley

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that demonetisation of high value currency notes in November 2016 “succeeded” in unearthing black money and preventing corruption.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, which was made available today, he said that at the time of demonetisation, on November 8, 2016, high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 amounting to Rs 15.44 lakh crore were in circulation.

“At the rate, Specified Bank Notes (SBNs) were growing in previous years, SBNs would have become of the order of about Rs 18 lakh crore in December, 2017,” he said, adding that the circulation of high value came down to 13.34 lakh crore last December.

Therefore, circulation of high value notes have been brought down effectively, Jaitley said in the reply. The minister further said that as high denomination notes have been used for storing black money and in corruption, “it may be concluded” that demonetisation did control black money generation and corruption.