Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has stated that demonetization has resulted in flooding of Indian markets by Chinese products, thus making Indian traders suffer.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on the night of 08th November last year the decision to declare existing Rs.500 and Rs.1000 currency notes as invalid, taking people by surprise. For the next three months, people faced untold difficulties in getting their old notes exchanged for new ones and also in withdrawing cash from Banks/ATMs across the country which witnessed serpentine, never-ending queues.

Rs.15 lakh crore was declared as invalid overnight. Though demonetization is viewed as a significant step in improving India’s economy in the long run, statistics say that it hasn’t resulted in immediate economic growth and has dented the income of small and medium-range traders. Today, the BJP-led Centre is gearing up to celebrate the first anniversary of demonetization as ‘anti-black money day’.

Congress, however, has decided to observe today as a ‘black day’. Taking part at a meeting in Ahmedabad, senior Congress leader and former prime-minister Manmohan Singh said “Demonetization has destroyed small and medium- range industries and traders. It has helped flooding of Indian markets with Chinese products as the imports from China, which was Rs.1.96 lakh crores in 2016-17, increased to Rs.2.41 lakh crores during 2017-18.

“Implementation of uniform GST tax regime has also not helped the economic growth and has hurt creation/generation of new employment opportunities. As a result, the GDP has hit an all-time low and its chances of recovering in the near future appear very bleak,” said Singh, who is seen by many as the ‘architect’ of India’s economic reforms in the early nineties.