TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance on Thursday asked whether the Reserve Bank of India was given enough time to discuss the demonetisation move of the Government which was implemented on November 8. Singh also suggested to the panel to call government officials to testify before hearing RBI Governor Urjit Patel.
The panel discussed the issue of demonetisation in the presence of independent experts like economists Rajiv Kumar and Mahesh Vyas, former chief statistician Pronab Sen and Kavita Rao of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
A BJP member of the panel said that Manmohan Singh was apparently suggesting that the RBI was not involved in the demonetisation decision adequately. The BJP member added that the step was taken in view of reasons like Naxalism, drugs, terrorism, counterfeit currency, namely matters that come under the Home Ministry and not Finance Ministry. Singh reportedly said that the Government took the decision and then asked the RBI to follow it, after which the RBI board approved of the demonetisation scheme. In a way, as per the IE report, Singh flagged the issue of RBI’s autonomy.