‘Demonetisation woes due to bank officers’ role’

He defended the demonetisation of the Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes calling them a part of an overall strategy to fight black money and to introduce developments like digitisation of currency. 

“Remember this was not a step taken in isolation,” he said. “It sent a very strong signal, ‘Look the government’s strategy is to combat the black money’.”  He was answering students’ questions after a lecture on India’s economic policy and performance organised by the Deepak and Neera Raj Centre on Indian economic policies at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. 

“It is a gigantic operation,” he said. “Those who have been critical of the RBI have not understood what a gigantic task it was to remonetise the economy. 

“The money that was completely out of the system, a substantial part of the cash that was in circulation was not in circulation, was not in the formal economy,” he said. 

“A lot of these the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) knew was not coming through the banking system at all. So they all needed to come back. 

“Demonetisation sends a very, very strong signal that the day when the central government was complacent was over, that if you are going to misbehave we are going to see to it that you pay for it,” he added. 

The demonetisation is being followed up by a number of other things like restrictions on contributing funds for elections, and “the digitisation of the transactions, big time,” Panagariya said. “So all in all it was a necessary step in the process.” 

He also praised the RBI for the “admirable role” it paid in keeping the rupee stable in November through two international developments - Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as the US President - that made an adverse impact on most developing country economies. Panagariya says that he would suggest eliminating customs duty on gold to curb smuggling and thereby reduce its potential as a vehicle for parking black money.