Back to note ban

Sanctity of official data is being violated under NDA rule. On demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are spinning a political narrative unsupported by the government’s own figures. Jailtey claimed on Sunday that demonetisation had left the Chhattisgarh Maoists and Kashmir separatists fund-starved, and that the number of fatal incidents has declined. This seems to be an exaggeration. According to media reports, in Kashmir 93 deaths occurred in violent incidents between November 9, 2016, and August 13, 2017, compared to 70 during the same period in the previous year. The number of encounters in Chhattisgarh during the above-mentioned years remained almost unchanged — 60 and 65, respectively. Eliminating terror funding was a stated objective of the withdrawal of 500 and 1000 rupee notes. 

In his Independence-Day address Prime Minister Modi said after the note ban the number of income taxpayers had “almost doubled”. Official figures do not back the claim. On August 7, 2017, a CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes — the most reliable source of all tax-related data) press release stated that demonetisation had led to a huge jump of 24 per cent in income-tax returns. Within a week the PM raised the figure to “almost double”. The Ministry of Finance tried to cover up the lapse by clarifying that the PM was referring to the filing of e-returns, whereas Modi had nowhere uttered the word “e-returns”. Jaitley has also been caught quoting half-truths. On May 17, 2017, he had claimed an addition of “91 lakh taxpayers” to the existing tax base, post-demonetisation. When questioned, his ministry explained that Jaitley’s taxpayer figure was for the entire financial year. 

This, however, does not tally with the Economic Survey’s figure. The Survey puts the total number of taxpayers during the financial year 2016-17 at 80.7 lakh. Two conclusions can be drawn from the conflicting sets of statistics. One, there is lack of coordination. Two, it is a deliberate distortion meant to turn this economic failing into a political success. It is not in the DNA of this regime to accept a failure or a mistake.