NEW DELHI -- Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said that "Remonetisation has substantially advanced and not a single incident of unrest reported". He reassured that things would only get better from now on. "Much better".
He said that a large part of currency had already been replaced and more notes of Rs. 500 were about to be released. He also said that more currency was being re-circulated and the ability of banks to lend had increased, he claimed.
"Till December 19, mop up of direct tax has risen 14.4 per cent, indirect tax grew 26.2 per cent; central excise went up 43.3 per cent and Customs rose by 6 per cent," he said.
On the agricultural front, he said, Rabi sowing had risen 6.3 per cent over last year.
"The critical part of remonetisation is now behind us, it will be much better, going forward", Mr. Jaitley said. The life insurance business had seen an upward trend, petroleum consumption had increased and so were tourism and investments in mutual funds, he asserted.
The Finance Minister, however, admitted that though "there could have been an adverse impact of demonetisatin on GDP for a quarter or so, it is not as bad as predicted." The critics were proved wrong, he said.
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