Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Saturday said that demonetisation led to expansion of the formal economy and brought black money into the government’s coffers, reported PTI. “Money lying at various places is now part of the economy,” he said, claiming that the Narendra Modi government does not make policies based on vote bank politics.

Shah said the number of taxpayers had increased from 3.7 crore to 6.4 crore over the last three years, and 30 crore new bank accounts had been opened. He also played down the dip in the Gross Domestic Product growth to 5.7%, claiming it had been 4.7% in 2013-14 during the United Progressive Alliance government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party president claimed that the National Democratic Alliance government had increased the “scale of thinking” in the business community. He urged businesses to “encash” the “Brand India” the government has built globally. Shah said there was immense potential for investments in Africa.

Shah said the National Democratic Alliance government had inherited the large percentage of banks’ non-performing assets from the Congress dispensation. “The issue is looked politically. But I want to make it very clear that none of these loans which turned NPAs were offered during our government,” he said. “The Opposition targets us saying that so many accounts have turned into NPAs. But not a single account is from our time. We have inherited it.”