Oh ! For a Painless Birth

For the past 3 days , we have witnessed a lot of suffering on the part of ordinary citizens

For hours on end , they have been waiting patiently in mile-long queues to withdraw new currency notes from 2.2 lakh ATMs ( often non-working or getting empty after serving 10 persons ) or to exchange Rs 4000 worth of OLD notes with NEW notes , at bank counters

Businesses of lakhs of small shops and millions of roadside vendors , came to a virtual standstill

Private hospitals refused to treat serious patients, who did not have NEW notes

Marriages came to a standstill, since caterers would not accept OLD notes .

And so did vehicles at toll nakas

Passengers got stranded at Railway Stations since they had only OLD notes which taxis / rickshaws , refused to accept

This list goes on and on

Of course , Shri Jaitley is right when he says :

A Child Birth is always accompanied by intense temporary pain - to be followed by immense perpetual joy , for months and years to come

No doubt true in case of Mother Nature's " Scheme of Things " !

But this was a TOTALLY AVOIDABLE pain , in case of the man-made " Scheme of Things " called " Currency Notes " !

What brought about this pain ?

Just a mere 4 hour notice before the OLD notes ceased to be " Legal Tender "

And no availability of the NEW notes , for days after the EXPIRY of the old notes

No overlap between the two .  No simultaneous existence for both !

But imagine if the OLD notes were to continue as " Legal Tender " till 31 March 2017

That would have enabled citizens to carry on their daily lives , as if nothing has changed !

They would have deposited their OLD notes into their bank accounts and would have withdrawn NEW notes ( either from their bank accounts or from ATMs ) , over the next 4 months , at their own convenience ! No hurry  !

During this TRANSITION PERIOD of 4 months , sellers ( whether individuals or companies ) , would have continued to accept OLD notes without any hesitation and the buyers would have managed to buy ( goods or services ) , by giving OLD notes !

Why did the Government not do this ?

Government was worried that Rs 5 lakh*crore worth of Black Money ( some 33 % of Rs 15 lakh*crore ) which was in the form of CASH ( OLD notes of Rs 500 / 1000 ), would get exchanged with NEW notes , WITHOUT getting deposited into banks !

Over the overlap period of 4 months , unknown to IT / ED , Black Money holders of OLD notes will persuade honest / tax-paying holders of NEW notes to exchange these at a discount !

None of those Black Money holders may ever come forward to deposit their crores of ill-gotten wealth into banks and pay up 230% tax + penalty

Simply because , the Government today , has no means to know who has accumulated , how many thousands of high denomination notes and where , and totaling how much !

But , if those NEW notes were embedded with RFID sensors , then the Government would know , where exactly EACH PIECE of such note is , at EVERY MOMENT !

And , no matter which - and how many TRICKS that the Black Money holders may employ , at the end of that 4 month TRANSITION PERIOD , there would be NO OLD NOTES remaining in circulation !

ALL notes would be ,

*  NEW

*  RFID embedded

*  Traceable ( pinpoint GPS location )

During his TV interview yesterday , Shri Jaitley said :

"  SIT had even suggested that government empower itself with seizure of a large accumulation of CASH at any given location , and then require the Owner to prove that he has paid taxes on it .

We will not hesitate to take such stringent steps in future , if the menace of Black Money persists "

Also during his speech to the Indian Community in Japan yesterday , Shri Modi said :

" There is no guarantee that , after 30th Dec , we may not take further drastic steps to eliminate the scourge of Black Money "

Dear Shri Modiji / Shri Jaitleyji :

Today , in small quantities , passive RFID chips cost , around 50 paise

If you buy these in BILLIONS , you will get these for less than 5 paise per piece

Let this be your MASTER STROKE / SURGICAL STRIKE , in 2017

This will be a BIRTH of a new and clean Economy , without causing pain to honest tax payers

Please , also consider :

Which Political Party / Neta , would want NEW RFID embedded notes to accumulate in cabinets / bank lockers which show up on IT / ED mobile app ( BLACK-MAIL ) ?

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13  Nov  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs