NITI Aayog member says "too early to calculate demonetisation effects"

In what may irk the Congress Party questioning the implementation of demonetisation, NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy on Monday said that former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh is mistaken in saying that this move would hurt the nation's GDP and growth.

"It is too early for anyone to calculate the effects of demonetisation on GDP in third or fourth quarter," said Debroy in an interview to ANI.

"The GDP is a very specific technical term, and the conclusion of the estimates should not be misused by anyone," he added.

Alleging that demonetisation was a monumental mismanagement, Dr Singh had earlier said that GDP of the country can decline about two percent as a result of this move.

Adding to this, Debroy said the gains from the demonetisation drive will not be limited to the amount of black money that would be rendered useless, however, it will also extend the government's massive revenue generation.

"The money deposited in the banks will be used for public investments such as infrastructure and other massive spends on building public goods and making more public services available," added Debroy.

He further said one needs to wait till the budget to see how much money has come in and how much will be paid in taxes.

Talking on the queues outside banks and ATMs, Debroy said the lines are now shorter as the currency shortage phase is finished.

"The long queue outside the ATM is due to the problem in the ATMs itself.

Almost 50 percent of them will continue to have issues," he said stating the queues will finish from the next seven to ten days as the lower denomination currency will be easily available.