If neither black money nor counterfeiting were curbed, what did demonetisation achieve, asks Congress

The Congress on Friday claimed the counterfeit notes have become rife once again and termed as an "eyewash" the government's assertion that the overall number of counterfeit notes detected has fallen. The opposition party also claimed that counterfeiting has just moved rapidly to higher-value notes.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh asked what has the 2016 demonetisation achieved if neither black money nor counterfeiting has been curbed.

"Eight years after the non-biological PM ground the economy to a halt through demonetisation, it appears that counterfeit notes have become rife once again - The number of counterfeit Rs 500 notes of the new series that have been detected has nearly quadrupled between 2018-19 and 2023-24. The number of fake Rs 2,000 notes has tripled since 2020-21," he claimed.

"While the Government can claim that the overall number of counterfeit notes detected has fallen, this is an eyewash. Counterfeiting has just moved rapidly to higher-value notes, including those that were introduced specifically in the aftermath of demonetisation," Ramesh said in a post on X.

"This admission of increased counterfeiting comes shortly after the non-biological PM himself made a stunning admission of the widespread prevalence of black money during the election campaign, accusing his favourites A1 and A2 of bearing tempos and sacks full of black money," he said.

If neither black money nor counterfeiting has been curbed, what has demonetisation achieved, Ramesh asked.

The Congress leader posted a screenshot of a Rajya Sabha question reply by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary which stated that measures have resulted in a decrease in the number of pieces of denomination-wise counterfeit notes detected/reported in the banking system from 3,17,384 in the year 2018-19 to 2,22,639 in the year 2023-24.

Ramesh also posted a media report, which cited data submitted to Parliament by the government to point out that the new series of the Rs 500 note and the Rs 2,000 note - both introduced after demonetisation in 2016 - together account for just over 50 per cent of the number of counterfeit currency notes that have been detected.

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced on national television his government's decision to ban all currency notes of higher denomination of ₹500 and ₹1,000 from midnight on the same day.