Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said here on Wednesday that the demonetisation had only brought entire quantum of black money into the system, but it had also started the process of ushering in “clean economy” in the country, and there had also been a “behaviourial shift” among people with more and more of them preferring digital transactions.
Addressing a news conference on the first anniversary of demonetisation, Gadkari said: “Cash deposits worth Rs 3.68 lakh crore in 23.22 lakh bank accounts are under suspicion after demonetisation and they are being investigated. Nearly 1.5 lakh people have deposited an approximate Rs 5 lakh crore of demonetised notes in banks and the money deposited constitutes one-third of cash that was in circulation..”
“An audit trial and data analysis of these bank accounts is being done by various Government departments. From these accounts we have not only established black money trail, but we have also started the process of ushering in clean economy in the country,” the Minister said.
Gadkari said that the Government would be initiating action against all those connected with black money that had returned to the system. “Entire black money has come into the system. We will prosecute all those connected with black money.
This is a big economic reform and an achievement of demonetisation. In our future economy, no one would dare hoard black money. Henceforth, all financial transactions will come on record and there would not be any Number-2 transactions," he said.
Alluding to increased digital transactions since demonetisation, Gadkari said that the increase in digital transactions was a big boost for the economy. “We are slowly heading towards digital economy. In the coming years, RBI will be printing negligible number of currency notes,” he said.
“Nowadays, people are using cards to purchase vegetables. They are using cards in hotels, restaurants and small shops. Even road toll has become cashless. Following demonetisation, there has been a 58 per cent increase in digital transactions. Since demonetisation, there have been 110 crore digital transactions worth Rs 3.30 lakh crore. Of these, the people have made 240 crore transactions worth Rs 3.2 lakh crore through debit and credit cards,” the Minister said.
Reeling out some more statistics, Gadkari said, “In fact, the numbers of tax-payers have increased by 26.6 per cent from 66.53 lakh in 2015-16 to 84.21 lakh in 2016-17. Filing of e-returns increased by 27.97 per cent from 2.35 crore in 2016-17 to 3.10 crore in 2017-18”.
Gadkari said that owing to demonetisation, the Government could come down heavily on terrorism and left wing extremism. "Plus, we have noticed that the incidents of stone pelting in Kashmir valley have come down considerably. Because of demonetisation, we have also been able to tackle the counterfeit currency," he said.
"Hawala trading has been dealt a deathly blow. As many as 2.24 lakh shell companies were exposed and forced to wind up operations while many black money and hawala transactions have been detected which are under the scanner of investigators," he said.
Gadkari announced that the Government would introduce electronic toll collection (ETC) mechanism at all toll plazas from December 1, to ease toll collection on national highways across the country.
"All the vehicles coming on the road after December 1 will have a FASTag to facilitate and ease cashless toll collection on national highways across the country. As many as 7.5 lakh vehicles already have the FASTag. The number would grow to 25 lakh vehicles March 2018. 3,500 lanes on national highways would be made FASTag ready in coming two months," he said.
According to the Minister, the FASTag is currently fetching a revenue of Rs 10 crore every day. "The revenue is expected to grow by 30 per cent by March 2018," he said.