Karnataka Assembly on Monday in its ongoing Budget Session witnessed some interesting debate on demonetisation. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is also the Finance Minister in his Budget speech, had criticised the demonetisation move initiated by Prime Minister Modi.
The Chief Minister had said it has affected the poor and farmers and said “entire cooperative sector that is so critical in servicing the farmers and the rural folk virtually came to standstill,” on account of demonetisation.
He had also said, “The biggest impact of demonetisation was witnessed in the collection of stamp duties which fell by 25 per cent in the aftermath of demonetisation”. “Against a revenue target of Rs 9,100 crores taxes from the stamps and registration department “we expect shortfall of almost Rs 1,350 crores and expect to achieve Rs 7,750 crore by March end,” he added.
Taking strong objection to this, the Opposition BJP accused ruling Congress Government headed by Siddaramaiah of politicicing the issue. Initiating a debate on the State Budget in the legislative Assembly, Opposition leader Jagadish Shettar of the BJP said citizens of the country, especially the poorer section had endorsed the move by the Narendra Modi Government to scrap higher denomination notes and it was reflected in the Uttar Pradesh elections.
He said, “You are merely criticising the demonetisation move just for your political gain. You can see how your party fared in the recent UP Assembly elections bagging only 7 seats while BJP came to power winning 325 seats. This showed that common voters had appreciated the Union Government's action in its fight against corruption and black money.”
Minister for Higher Education Basavaraja Rayaraddi objected to Shettar's statement and said Congress Government in Karnataka had merely said that the Centre had not made good preparations before announcing such dramatic decision which deeply affected the lives of the people.
Speaker KB Koliwad also endorsed Rayaraddi’s statement and said the Government was only critical on the preparations that were not enough. However, Shettar agreed that there was temporary setback and said demonetisation had helped the country and in no way it had affected the development of the economy contrary to the ‘false’ claims of the Congress party. “Modi has taken a bold step. The entire world has appreciated his move,” he added.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who also holds the Finance portfolio had criticised the union government of putting people at great discomfort by not making early preparations before scrapping Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. It had also brought the cooperative banking system in Karnataka to a grinding halt severely affecting the people, especially farmers.