Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has suggested to the Parliamentary Panel on Finance that before hearing RBI Governor Urjit Patel, it should first find out whether the Reserve Bank of India was given sufficient time to hold deliberations on the government’s demonetisation move.
According to a report in The Indian Express, during a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance on Thursday, Manmohan Singh asked the panel to call government officials to depose before it.
The report said that the panel was discussing the issue in the presence of independent experts, including economists Rajiv Kumar and Mahesh Vyas, former chief statistician Pronab Sen and Kavita Rao of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, who had been called to offer their views on this matter.
“We were discussing when the RBI Governor should appear before the panel. Singh said that according to a note from the RBI, the government took the decision on November 7 and the RBI board decided on it on November 8. So it would be better if the panel hears from the government first and then calls the RBI Governor. Singh said that the panel can then ask the RBI Governor regarding autonomy of the institution,” a panel member, who attended the meeting, told The Indian Express.
The report quoted its sources as saying that three of the experts were critical of the demonetisation decision.
The report further said that in accordance with Manmohan Singh’s suggestions, RBI Governor will now brief the panel on January 18 or 19 on demonetisation and its implications, while government officials, mostly from the Finance ministry, will be asked to depose before it on January 11 or 12.
