Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that with the demonetisation exercise in November 2016, the government had intended to expose the black money market and track those operating in it.

“Demonetisation was not synonymous with confiscation of money,” Jaitley said at the launch of the book India@70 Modi @3.5. “We gave people an opportunity to come clean about their accounts held abroad. The prime minister had a very strong agenda on creating a new normal as far as the shadow economy in India was concerned.”

His comments came a day after senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha accused him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of mismanaging the economy.

At the event on Thursday, Jaitley said he did not have the “luxury of being a former finance minister”, referring to Sinha. “I must confess that I do not have the luxury as yet of being a former finance minister. Nor do I have the luxury of being a former finance minister who’s turned a columnist,” he said, according to NDTV.

Here are the highlights of Jaitley’s speech:

  • Direct tax figures this year are 15.7% over and above those of 2016.
  • The shadow economy had corrupted us as a society and tarnished our image globally. There was no way to do business in India without relying on the alternative economy.
  • Those who had pushed the country into a policy paralysis had asked the government to postpone the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.
  • We are spending more, even on programmes of the earlier government, because there are more resources.
  • Between 2012 and 2014, the government had virtually given up. Everything was allowed to drift on its own, and thus, non-performing assets mounted. When reckless lending took place, everyone was looking the other way. Harsh measures had to be taken. But were they too harsh?
  •  The “India at 70” is an India we look up to. We want to occupy the place of a fast-growing economy. India is still the fastest growing economy, despite global slowdown. 
  • The root of political corruption in New Delhi was discretion, which was used by the Congress-led government. Discretion led to corruption in the administration.

On Wednesday, in an article in The Indian Express, Yashwant Sinha had criticised the government for the decline in India’s Gross Domestic Product growth rate and described the Centre’s demonetisation drive as “an unmitigated economic disaster”. The former finance minister had said that despite low global oil prices, Jaitley had failed to use the extra finances to revive the economy.

His son, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, on Thursday dismissed articles “drawing sweeping conclusions” on the Centre’s economic decisions.