Rahul Gandhi, Derek O'Brien's Demonetisation Swipe After RBI Detects Over 100% Spike In Fake Notes Of Rs 500

The Congress and TMC leaders have cited the latest RBI report which pointed to a 101.9% increase in fake notes of Rs 500 denomination and a 54.16% increase in fake notes of Rs 2,000.

New Delhi: Opposition MPs Rahul Gandhi and Derek O'Brien on Sunday took a swipe at the Union government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the claim that the Centre's 2016 demonetisation drive wiped out fake currency. The tweets came after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its latest annual report, pointed to a 101.9% increase in fake notes of Rs 500 denomination and a 54.16% increase in fake notes of Rs 2,000. With the sudden announcement of the demonetisation exercise on November 8, 2016, the Centre had aimed to tackle the issue of fake currency in circulation while also boosting digital transactions.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and wrote: "The only unfortunate success of Demonetisation was the TORPEDOING of India’s economy."

On the other hand, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien also took a swipe at the Prime Minister tweeting, "Namaskar Mr PM @narendramodi DEMONETIZATION ? Remember ? And how @MamataOfficial swiftly took you on? How you promised the nation Demo would WIPE OUT ALL COUNTERFEIT CURRENCY. Here's the latest RBI report pointing out the huge increase in counterfeit notes."

The leaders have cited the latest RBI report which stated that "Compared to the previous year, there was an increase of 16.4 per cent, 16.5 per cent, 11.7 per cent, 101.9 per cent and 54.6 per cent in the counterfeit notes detected in the denominations of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 200, Rs 500 (new design) and Rs 2000, respectively. The counterfeit notes detected in the denominations of Rs 50 and Rs 100 declined by 28.7 per cent and 16.7 per cent, respectively."

So, RBI has detected a 101.9% increase in fake notes of Rs 500 denomination and a 54.16% increase in fake notes of Rs 2,000 tender.

The menace of fake currency notes and their use of black money for terror activities were cited as reasons behind the decision that led to long queues in front of banks with people looking to get their old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes replaced with the new legal tender.

The note ban was also aimed at reducing cash transactions to crack down on black money and corruption.