Government tells Supreme Court: Note ban a bold move on black money

New Delhi: The Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday that its demonetisation move was a bold attempt to unearth the black money that has been stocked up over the past 70 years.

In its affidavit to a batch of petitions, the Centre said the objective behind demonetisation was to unearth an illegal parallel economy, and was also aimed at reducing the ratio of cash transactions. It said that the menace of fake currency has been tackled and funding for terror groups has stopped.

The apex court is to hear a batch of petitions on Friday challenging demonetisation.

Further, the Centre informed the court about the steps taken in the last few days to ease people’s difficulties. It said that the re-calibration of ATMs is on in full swing.

It further said any difficulty being faced by the people would be sorted out.

The affidavit said the government had earlier constituted an SIT to curb black money and amended the Benami Act. It said that there was no shortage of new currency, and that Rs 6 lakh crore had already been received as deposits in banks. The government has set up a committee which will take stock of the ground situation across the country. The general rule is that the cash transactions in the market should not be more than four per cent of the GDP, but it is 12 per cent in India. The banks are flush with money and lending rates will come down. Alternate arrangements have been made to address the problems of farmers and traders, special teams have been sent to all the States and the situation monitored.