Demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes is a landmark step towards eradicating the scourge of black money in the country. It had assumed extraordinary dimensions so much so that almost a parallel economy was running in the country. That is why the Government had to take steps to curb it and its serious impact on country’s economy. It has come like a bolt from the blue for the people who have hoarded money and not paid tax. In particular, surgical strike on black money has had to be made in view of the perfidy that Pakistan was up to in printing enormous number of fake Indian currency notes and then pumping them clandestinely into our country. The figures of fake notes and their fake value as prevailing in the market are well documented.
Though, the Government made very meticulous planning and the entire anti-black money project was conducted with strict secrecy, and in that context it can be called a very successful project of far reaching national interests, yet one can say that a few loopholes did remain which more deep thinking could have prevented. For example the cassettes of the ATM machines were not standardized to contain more 100 rupees notes as these had capacity up to 2 lakh pieces of currency notes. Had the capacity been raised before the announcement, people would not have to stand in long queues. It is a fact that for last few days when the announcement of demonetization was made, many people had to suffer in different ways despite some relaxations given by the Government. Secondly sufficient number of hundred rupee notes should have been provided to all banks in view of the great demand for them. One technical snag in the ATM machines is that the cassettes are not able to handle the count of new currency notes which are smaller in size. What the Government needs to do is to make hardware changes in the ATM machines so that there is no hindrance in these machines serving the new currency. The Finance Minister has acknowledged that this is an urgent exercise and will be undertaken by the Finance Ministry in two or three weeks.
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