West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Friday claimed demonetisation and faulty implementation of GST caused a loss of Rs 4.75 lakh crore to country's economy even as he criticised the Centre's initiative to extend up to Rs 1 crore loan to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in 59-minutes. He said the scheme was just a gimmick and he has not come across anyone who has received loan through the portal.
As a result of faulty implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the states earned Rs 78,929 crore less revenue since July 2017, which is has been compensated by the Centre as per compensation law of the new indirect tax regime.
"The Government at Centre believe in chest thumping, hit and miss decision making, disastrous decision making and failure decision making... There is an economic uncertainty in the minds of small businesses," Mitra said addressing a press conference at the India International Trade Fair (IITF) here. Speaking about demonetisation of high value currency notes in November 8, 2016, Mitra said it has hit farmers and unorganised sector of the economy badly since their business mode was cash dependent. He said even developed countries like Japan and Switzerland have higher cash:GDP ratio than India.