Avelino de Sa
The recent move to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and 1,000 by PM Modi with the view to eliminate black money and corruption in India and move to a cashless economy leads me to think if it is possible to wipe out black money and corruption and move on to a cashless economy in India?
Let us look first at elimination of black money in India. How many shopkeepers and professionals in the cities today are issuing bills for sale of goods and services? Look at the villages or market places there. Are they issuing bills? Are they filing Income Tax returns? Is this then not black money? Yes demonetisation has put in trouble those who had black money but will it be able to wipe out black money completely from the economy in the absence of bills from shopkeepers and professionals or is this a temporary phase? There are professionals who will continue advising how to evade taxes or create black money because today nobody wants to pay Income Tax due to high incidence of tax, corrupt politicians and wastage of public funds in the name of development and advertisements? So is it possible to wipe out black money from India?
Let us look at elimination of corruption. With the politicians and government employees being the most corrupt will it be possible to wipe out corruption from india? Corruption is in our blood. We are willing to pay anything to get our work done even if it is illegal. We are not willing to complain against corrupt officers. We believe in pay and finish it rather than fight against corruption. Then is it possible to wipe out corruption from the country?
Finally let us look at switching over to a cashless economy. With half of India’s population being illiterate and housewives and senior citizens not knowing to use plastic money or even to write a cheque is it possible to shift over to a cashless economy? What about internet connectivity for plastic money and mobile signals for mobile banking? How good is it in Goa leave all over country? How many shopkeepers are willing to accept plastic money? What about small shopkeepers and road side vendors or even taxi operators? Will they accept plastic money? Ok you will train them and force them to use plastic money but what about the general public. How will you train them or force them to use plastic money? If it is not possible to wipe out black money and corruption and switch to a cashless economy in India then what is demonetisation fuss all about? If you look at the timing of demonetisation it is nothing but a publicity stunt as it was announced the same day as the US election results.
See the mess in the implementation and the printing of notes. It was all done in a hurry to meet the deadline – 8th November. What was the hurry? Yes black money and corruption is a blot on India and needs to be wiped out permanently and not temporarily but is it possible in India? Yes it is possible but for that we all have to join hands against black money and corruption but then again is that possible?
