‘It’s like making Dracula in charge of blood bank’

New Delhi, Jan 6: Asking the Income Tax Department to ensure the success of the demonetisation move by the government is like making “Dracula in charge of a blood bank.” This was stated by Piki Misra, a member of parliament from the Biju Lok Dal of Orissa, and a veteran lawyer on the Karan Thapar show on Friday. He said in his legal career he had interacted with the Income Tax Department and he had found that it was the “most corrupt department” in the whole government.

The show, on India Today TV, discussed the impact of demonetisation after the 50 days deadline set by the government. The government had demonetised the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8.

On the same programme, P.N. Vijay, a spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Jata Party, said that the figure of Rs 14.97 lakh crore put out by Bloomberg news agency on Wednesday as demonetised currency “was correct”. He said his party was “always expecting” all the money to come back and was very happy that it had happened.

Thapar contradicted him saying that the government was in fact saying there would be a shortfall of Rs 3 lakh crore black money from demonetisation, which it would get back as “windfall” dividend from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). (IANS)