Remonetisation substantially completed, will expand tax base: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the process of remonetising the economy has been substantially completed which will result in expansion of the tax base.

It was in November 2016 that the government had announced demonetisation, junking 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in a bid to curb black money and corruption, while introducing new 2,000 and new 500 rupee notes, for which the term remonetisation was coined.

"India was not a tax compliant society. A very large part of the economy was cash-centric. This problem needed to be addressed. It requires a lot of political courage to resolve the problem," said Jaitley. "Eighty six per cent of India's currency was replaced within a matter of few months. The remonetisation got substantially completed," he added.

He later said that the move brought the country closer to digitisation.

"It ended the anonymity related to cash operated in the system and hopefully, in the days to come, the taxation base of India would expand," he said.