Finance Minister Dr T M Thomas Isaac calls it an economic emergency

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister Dr T.M. Thomas Isaac, while announcing that Treasury operations will be shut down on November 9, described the Prime Minister's late Wednesday currency note phase out as a "blunder" and termed it a "gimmick". On an average, transactions worth Rs 300-400 crore take place daily through the Treasury. "This will have serious repercussions for the state," Mr Isaac said. An economic emergency has been clamped, Mr Isaac said.

"Mr Modi seems to be under the impression that black money is held in the form of 500 and 1000 rupee notes," he told reporters here. "Black money is brought to the banking sector through the hawala route, in the form of gold transactions and benami land transactions," Mr Isaac said. "It is only rarely that black money is held as cash," he added. The finance minister said that it was ironic that Mr Modi was claiming to fight against black money. "His economic policies encourage illegal activities," he said. "Where has Mallya's crores gone," he asked. Mr Isaac said arbitrary actions had become the hallmark of the Modi dispensation. "We are yet to receive our central funds this month. They have arbitrarily decided not to disburse our share," he said.

Chitty actions postponed
The Finance Department has already given instructions to postpone the auctions of hundreds of KSFE chitties till further notice. The finance minister held a late emergency meeting of top finance, expenditure and revenue officials in the Secretariat. There are hundreds of chitties whose last date of auction falls on November 9 and 10.