New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who was chairman of the Prime Minister’s committee on demonetisation, has told News18 that time has come to totally phase out Rs 2,000 notes.

“Any reform will take time to show results. I have always maintained that higher denomination notes will naturally create some problem and will also begin certain corrupt practices. That is my firm belief. Even in the political spectrum, the Rs 2000 note is bound to create some problems. In fact, the digital currency needs to be made cost effective so that transformation is easier,” he told News18.

When asked if it was Narendra Modi government’s mistake to introduce Rs 2000 notes during demonetization drive, Naidu said, “At that time, we needed Rs 2000 note since a large value of the currency was being removed from the system. The printers could not have kept pace had we not introduced Rs 2000 note. But it needs to be phased out now,” he said.

The Andhra CM, who was also a big exponent of the Goods and Services Tax, admitted that that new system was facing teething problems. On Tuesday, he met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to discuss the same.

“I told him there are some basic issues which we need to sort out. In Andhra Pradesh, even the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam is coming under GST. We need to exempt these. There are other sectors too which need to be exempted,” Naidu said.