NCP backs Chidambaram on Budget, says demonetisation 'collapsed' economy

The Nationalist Congress Party on Friday stood firm by the statement made by Congress leader P. Chidambaram where he commended Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for not making the Union Budget 'reckless' like demonetisation and added the Centre's move to ban the high-value of currency only resulted in the collapse of the nation's economy.

"What Chidambaram said is absolutely correct. After demonetisation the economy of the country has almost collapsed by the way unemployment has increased, the way weaker section of the society has been affected by it. It will take time to bring the economy back to normalcy," said NCP leader Tariq Anwar to ANI.

Anwar further declined the claims made by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government on the rise of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and said this cannot be true as even the economist from across the globe have accepted that demonetisation is not good for the economy of a country.

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday, while commending the budget for not being reckless, said that the Union Budget had done nothing to boost demand, something that would have been possible if indirect taxes had been slashed.

"It is obvious that demonetisation and its inevitable consequences have demoralised the government. Government has retreated from reforms," he said in a press meet here.

Moreover, he described the tax cut as tokenism and said 1.98 crore taxpayers have got a relief of Rs 5,000 per person.

"It is small mercy for a person who stood in a queue for many hours for many weeks to withdraw small amounts of money from his or her account," he said.