New Delhi
AMN
After calling demonetisation as a “monumental mismanagement”, “organised loot” and “legalised plunder”, in a speech in the Rajya Sabha, former Prime Minister and noted economist Manmohan Singh Monday said that demonetisation and GST have adversely impacted the gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the country.
“Both demonetisation and GST have had some impact on GDP. Both would affect the informal sector, the small scale sector that are responsible for 40 per cent of GDP and 90 per cent of employment is in the informal sector. So when 86 per cent of currency is withdrawn from circulation, plus GST, which was put in practice in haste- lot of glitches are now coming up – it was bound to affect GDP growth adversely,” he told a TV channel.
In his speech in Parliament immediately after the implementation of demonetisation, Dr Singh had described demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes as a “monumental mismanagement”, “organised loot” and “legalised plunder” which would eventually lead to reduction of two per cent in the country’s GDP. Earlier in the month, former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said that the country’s GDP had taken a hit of between 1 per cent to 2 per cent due to demonetisation, which translated to a sum of around Rs 2 lakh crore.