Govt fleeced Rs 26,000 cr in name of Digital India: Randeep Surjewala

He attacked PM Narendra Modi for his cashless push to economy post-demonetisation

The Congress  on Tuesday accused the government of "organised fleecing and legalised pillage" of a whopping Rs 26,000 crore from the common man in the name of 'Digital India'.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his cashless push to the economy post-demonetisation, AICC chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the true mask of Digital India is coming off as government is not intervening to stop banks from imposing heavy charges on use of ATMs and debit and credit cards.

"The mask of Digital India is coming off and the truth is out for everybody to see. Government has sanctioned Rs 26,000 crore worth of organised fleecing and legalised pillage from ordinary Indians in the name of digital India," he said.

He said in the name of Digital India, Modi government is fleecing the citizens and earning a whopping Rs 26,000 crore in the form of taxes or charges on digital transactions.

"After the unwitting and devastating decision of demonetisation forced upon the people of India, the Modi government is brazenly indulging in 'organised loot' and 'legalised plunder' in the name of digital transactions," he said.

Surjewala said Digital India means facilitation and ease of transactions and it does not mean filling bank and government coffers by fleecing ordinary people.

"We want to tell Modi government to stop fleecing ordinary Indians of Rs 26,000 crores that it proposes to fleece by way of these multiple transaction fees in the name of Digital India," he said.

To substantiate his charge, he claimed even if a charge of 0.05 per cent was imposed, the charges that would go to government and banks this year would be Rs 26,000 crore.

In the next three years when the number of transactions go up, he said the charges levelled by the government would reach the amount of Rs 60,000 crore per year.

Citing the figures, which he termed as startling, Surjewala said 30 per cent of total transactions will be digital that amounts to Rs 51 lakh crore in transactions.

In the year 2017, he said it is expected that India's ordinary consumers will spend around Rs 170 lakh crore and this target in 2020 would go up to 50 per cent digital and 50 per cent in cash transactions.

"First it was the unwitting and the devastating decision of demonetisation. As Modi government would watch smugly, banks, including private banks, will get enriched at the cost of the common man. Bank cash registers would be ringing with Rs 26,000 crore, taken from pocket of every Indian doing bank, ATM or online transaction," he said.

Surjewala asked Modi if he stood for the poor or the rich as he talked about the poor all the time.

He also accused the government of withdrawing Rs 4,500 crore subsidy on sugar, saying the government is making the taste bitter for people this Holi festival.

The Congress leader cited five kinds of banking charges being imposed now.