NEW DELHI: Even as the 50-day window, sought by the Prime Minister to end the pain of demonetisation, comes to an end today, the government continued to ramp up its discourse on the move’s positive outcomes. While the Finance Minister asserted that there was a sharp jump in tax collections, sources said Modi was likely to address the nation, yet again, before the dawn of the New Year.
Claiming that the remonetisation process was sufficiently advanced, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there was a sharp jump in the tax collections recorded and an increase in rabi crop sowing. He also claimed that the negative impact of demonetisation was not as adverse as it had been predicted and there wasn’t a single incident of unrest in the country as a result of the move.
“From April 1 to December 19, the net increase in income tax collections has been 14.4 per cent. Even if one factor in large amounts of refunds, the net increase is 13.6 percent,” he pointed out. As for indirect taxes, from April 1 until November 30, central indirect tax collections have increased by 26.25 percent.
Excise duty collections have gone up by 43.5 per cent, service tax collections by 25.7 percent and customs duty collections by 5.6 percent, he said. “For the month of November 2016, which could have been adversely impacted by currency replacement, on a year on year basis, all three indirect taxes collection is much higher,” Jaitley added. However, he did not quote the exact figures for November.
Meanwhile, sources said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was likely to address the nation on December 31 and is expected to announce new initiatives to ease the cash crunch and new policies including farm loan relief.
The government also fielded senior ministers to counter attacks over note ban. Sources said the Finance Ministry has put together a presentation on the benefits of the note ban, for Union ministers and party parliamentarians.
The ministers, according to sources, would be present across the country on December 31 to reach out to the people and explain the achievements of demonetisation. The government is also expected to announce the winners of a lucky draw for the maximum number of digital transactions.