The much-respected Deepak Parekh, Chairman of Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) moderated his views on the demonetisation drive launched by PM Narendra Modi on high-value notes in a bid to stamp out black money and push the country onto the online payments platform. Parekh had earlier appreciated PM Modi’s decision that banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. But in an interview with News18, he sounded quite skeptical about the move and its potential to script a windfall for India.
Parekh said that the market and the corporate sector have been affected in major way and it might take a ‘quarter or so’ to get back to normal. And, on the day that the RBI surprised everyone by keeping key rates unchanged at 6.25 per cent, Parekh said that he does not forsee any reduction in interest rate. During the interview, Parekh said everyone will have to wait for this quarter to find out the exact nature of the impact and added that from turnover to sales, everything has been affected.
From a personal perspective Parekh said, “Practically everyone I speak to, has been impacted after November 8” (the date on which PM Modi announced the demonetisation drive). He also hinted at the helplessness of the corporates across the nation and said that there’s nothing more that can be done at the moment. “We want the normalcy to come back”, he said.
However, Parekh was unsure about the time that would take for normalcy to return in India. He said “By January, I hope some normalcy returns to the market and to the corporate sector”. This is a major change from Parekh’s earlier stand when he had lauded the demonetisation decision and had called it a ‘big bang’ reform. He had said that the it’s a bold and a necessary step and that he believes it may even turn out to be a game changer.
