Writing is on the wall, says Mamata as rupee slumps

Kolkata: Raising her concern over "rupee crashing to its lowest ever," Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has attacked the Centre, stating that "small business will be killed further," after the demonetisation disaster.

It may be recalled that Banerjee was the first to raise her voice against demonetisation of high value notes. Again on Thursday, the Chief Minister tweeted, raising her apprehension of adverse affect on "informal sector and small businesses," due to the "rupee slide".

In a tweet, the Chief Minister stated: "Rupee crashes to its lowest ever. We are very concerned."

Banerjee, who had attacked the Centre repeatedly for the abnormal hike in the prices of petrol and diesel a few weeks ago, maintained in the tweet: "Oil import bill will now jump. Prices for vegetables will also go up."

The Chief Minister had earlier attacked BJP for its "vendetta politics" and had stated that Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Banerjee was arrested for raising his voice against the "anti-people" moves of the Centre, including demonetisation of high value notes.

In her tweet on Thursday, the Chief Minister has recollected the "demonetisation disaster" episode and maintained: "After demonetisation disaster and now rupee slide, informal sector and small businesses will be further killed. Farmer distress will be compounded. Time is running out. The writing is on the wall!! #RupeeCrash".

It may be recalled that state Finance Minister Amit Mitra had claimed after one year of demonetisation that the note ban had led to a fall in the GDP and around Rs 3 lakh crore GDP was extinguished.

He had also stated that the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy has revealed recently that there was a loss of 5 lakh jobs in the first four months of 2017. Moreover, there was also job loss in the informal sector, that shares 40 percent of the GDP.

"At the same time, 80 percent job creation had faced a major blow due to demonetisation. In Surat, around 1 lakh weavers have sold off their machines, while at Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, 40 percent of the 15,000 crore business was lost and the picture is same all over, including places like Ludhiana, Muradabad and Agra," Mitra had said earlier.

Now with "rupee crashing to its lowest ever," there are once again apprehensions of a major blow to the "small businesses," many of which are still trying to overcome the setback they had faced due to note ban in 2016.