Affirming that the demonization is aimed at bringing common man into the tax bracket and not to bring out the black money as was the claim, Leader of Opposition YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said that Chandrababu Naidu had prior knowledge of the Centre’s move and would have taken full credit had it gone well.

On his way to Narasaraopet, halting at Vijayawada, he flays that the main aim of the demonetization seems to only to widen the tax base and not to bring out the black money as Rs 13 lakh crores have already been deposited in banks of the estimated Rs 14.5 lakh crores in circulation. The rest is likely to come in by month end. Where then is the black money.

“Ours being a cash economy 90 % of the transactions are carried out by cash more so in farming sector and in petty, small and medium trade and such a move has not shown the described effect”, he added

He alleged that people like Chandrababu Naidu and his coterie had prior knowledge of the move and have swept their houses clean while the common man had to stand in long queues to get Rs 2,000. The raids of Income Tax yielding crores of rupees in new currency notes shows that the information was leaked to a select few.

Chandrababu Naidu has boasted of writing a letter to the Prime Minister to pull out higher denomination notes and when the move drew flak he started calling ‘Modi is bad.’ Had it been a success he would have gone round the town blowing his trumpet that it was he who was author of the reform.

‘How else can he justify his shelling down of shares of his family owned Heritage Foods just two days before monetization and the claim that he has written a letter to the Prime Minister itself is bizarre,’ he said. The demonetization move is not aimed at bringing out black money but only to bring more people into the tax bracket, he added.