Apprehensions about Macroeconomic Scenario

S L Shetty writes:

The monetary policy statement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), coming barely a month after the tumultuous decision to withdraw the legal tender status of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes on 8 November, will destabilise the Indian economy and hurt the growth process. The interests of the country’s common people who struggle to eke out a living in our blatantly unequal society have been adversely affected. There is sufficient evidence to negate the rationale behind demonetisation. The most glaring public policy failures today concern the absence of any expansionary and egalitarian impulses emanating from the two pillars of monetary and fiscal policies. The fiscal malaise relating to all-round distortions in patterns of taxation and expenditures has been well-documented (Budget 2016, EPW, 19 March 2016).