Jaitley's defence

India had a high cash to GDP ratio of 12.2%

Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) might be at loggerheads at other times but together they picked holes in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s defence of the government’s demonetisation move. When Jaitley said that India had a high cash to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of 12.2 per cent, TMC lawmaker Saugata Roy asked what the cash percentage was in markets like the US and Japan. Roy also asked how much money had returned to the banks since the note ban. When Jaitley said counting of notes would take some more time, CPI-M’s Mohammed Salim ured the FM to refer a Central Board of Direct Taxes report on the matter. Officials from the finance ministry passed a chit to Jaitley, who said in economies such as Sweden, Australia and the UK, the cash to GDP ratio was between two and four per cent. When Roy asked why the US data was not being cited, Jaitley said India couldn’t be compared with that country.