Noteban will be probed after change of guard at Centre: Anand Sharma

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma addressing press as the ruling BJP-led Central government completes three years, at AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI Photo by Subhav Shukla (PTI5_25_2017_000056B)

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma Friday termed demonetisation as the BJP's "money laundering scam", adding the move would be probed after the "government changes at the Centre".

"After this announcement, there were many incidents of seizure of cash by police and all those arrested were associated with the BJP. Not only this, but within 10 days to demonetisation, the new currency reached terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir," he told reporters here.

On November 8, 2016, the government had scrapped old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. It later issued the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 banknotes.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that demonetisation would deal a blow to black money, Sharma alleged 99.3 percent cash returned to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after the move which meant that almost the entire cash from the market reached the central bank and there was no black money.

"Modi just lied to the people...," the former Union commerce minister said.

On the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Sharma said the Congress was in favour of the indirect tax regime, but was kept in dark by the BJP while introducing the same.

"They goofed up on the issue and purposefully kept petroleum, electricity, alcohol and real estate out of the ambit of GST. These all together constitute 45 percent of the total revenue of the country," he said.

The Congress leader also claimed the "haphazard" and "indiscreet" decision devastated the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector and about 4 crore jobs were lost.

He said only Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) benefitted from these decisions and amassed 86.4 percent of the total donations given to political parties, adding the saffron party spent a whopping Rs 4,297 crore on advertisements.

"This all was the black money and the BJP used its position to use the agencies to threaten and extort money," Sharma alleged.

On claims of the Vasundhara Raje-led Rajasthan government that the state received Rs 2.5 lakh crore investment, the former Union minister challenged her to show at least Rs 20,000 crore worth investment under her five-year rule.

The desert state will go to polls on December 7.