With 32
days down , leaving only 18
to go ( from those 50 days in which Shri Narendra Modiji had envisaged a "
Changed India " , and barely any sign of that change ) , it is but natural that the concerned
Ministries / Agencies / RBI / Public Sector Banks etc , are having a PANIC ATTACK !
SYMPTOMS
of ATTACK :
*
Frequent extensions of deadlines for acceptance of OLD notes by various
agencies
* Making many services FREE from
payments ( Govt to pick up the tab ? )
*
Making banks work on week-ends / holidays
*
Making Cash Distributing Agencies / Notes printing presses, to work
around the clock
* Ordering
ONE BILLION plastic notes of Rs 10
denominations
*
Appointing a Committee of Chief Ministers to suggest ways for going CASH
LESS
* Introducing prizes / awards for
DIGITAL PAYMENTS , to panchayats
*
Conducting classes for educating Government Officers in DIGITAL PAYMENTS
*
Launching exclusive TV channel / Help Line for helping citizens to go
digital
*
Launching ( perpetual ? ) AMNESTY SCHEME in the guise of IT Act
Amendments
*
Planning " Tax Incentives " for Buyers making DIGITAL PAYMENTS
* Planning " Incentives "
for Merchants accepting digital payments
* Considering
introduction of " Jan Dhan Yojana " like scheme for users in Rural /
Semi
Urban areas , who use Credit / Debit cards
* Government ordering TEN LAKH Card Swipe
machines for delivery in 100 days
*
NABARD ordering TWO LAKH , Point of Use machines ( for Rs 6,000 each ),
for giving
FREE , for use by 2 shops , in one lakh towns of 10,000 people or less
*
Offering tiny discounts on purchase of petrol / diesel / Life Insurance
etc
* Offering
Credit / Debit cards to farmers for buying seeds / fertilizers etc
*
Imposing limits on weekly withdrawals of cash from Jan Dhan accounts
By no means , this is a comprehensive list
And be rest assured that there will be 18 new /
additional announcements in the remaining 18 days !
WAS ALL
OF THESE AVOIDABLE
?
May be not ALL,
but certainly MOST what is causing hardships to common man , was
avoidable
IS A
ROLL BACK POSSIBLE
?
Short answer :
NO
Long answer
: You just cannot "
Unscramble , a scrambled Egg " !
WILL ALL OF
THIS SUFFERING ELIMINATE CORRUPTION ?
Yesterday , I heard of the seemingly strange case of an
IT officer " offering " bribe to a businessman , instead of "
demanding " it !
He told this businessman :
" I will OK your tax return without disallowing any expenses , if you
give me ONE new note of Rs 2000 / - in return for ACCEPTING my 5 OLD notes of
Rs 500 each , and obliging me "
May be this " innovation " was not envisaged
by the authors of Demonetization !
Already , raids by ED all over the country, are finding
hoards of NEW notes of Rs 2000 , which are slimmer / lighter and easier to
carry ! Soon, it will be " back to square one " !
IS IT
TOO LATE TO
SALVAGE THE SITUATION ?
No !
In our population of 1300 million , may
be 1.3 million had huge amounts of unaccounted / untaxed cash in Rs 500 / 1000
notes, totally disproportionate to their known sources of income - and hidden
in home cabinets or bank lockers .
For the rest, those few high denomination notes were strictly " in
proportion " to their known sources of income . There was no need to
harass these people , in order to locate those few / hidden / huge bundles of
illegal cash
But sudden / abrupt " demonetization
" caused just that harassment !
All that was required was a slow /
gradual " replacement " of OLD notes with NEW notes , over an overlap period of 6 months - except that those NEW notes would be embedded with RFID chips !
Ordinary / honest / tax-paying / law
abiding citizens would not have even raised an eye-brow with such a
technological " intervention "
If anything , they would have welcomed it
since that would have allowed them to continue buying their vegetables /
groceries / bus tickets , without having to queue up in front of ATM machines !
It is still
possible, not merely to " salvage " this " operation gone bad
", but permanently eliminate the twin menaces of CORRUPTION and BLACK MONEY generation, by embedding high
denomination currency notes , with RFID micro-sensors !
I have sent my proposal ( Embracethe Inevitable ), to NDA Ministers / Secretaries , on 13 Nov 2016
{ myblogepage.blogspot.in/2016/11/embrace-inevitable.html }
I am sure our Policy Makers are not so naive as to
believe that human greed can be wished away by a " dictate " !
Neither Communism , nor Socialism , nor Capitalism has
ever succeeded in conquering greed , anywhere in the World .
Did they really believe that those 1.3 million BLACK
MONEY holders will come forward and declare their ill-gotten wealth , through
persuasion ?
And , did they really believe that , even if they did so
NOW ( to escape jail ) , they will not start , all over again , as soon as
sufficient numbers of Rs 2,000 notes became available ?
For an answer ,
do read... " Fearworks better than Persuasion " ( 10 Oct 2016 )
,
{ http://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/10/fear-works-better-than-persuation.html
}
Implementing my suggestion at this stage , cannot erase
/ reverse, the hardships suffered by common men - and the damage inflicted on
the economy ,
BUT
It will ensure that ,
* The country
stops sinking into what is turning out to be an ECONOMIC QUICK SAND
*
Shri Modi is able to restore the CONFIDENCE that poor Indians have placed in him
*
BJP does not lose those 5 State Elections coming up in the next 12 months
* CORRUPTION / BLACK MONEY , are permanently
eliminated !
If Caesar chooses to ignore this " Beware of the Ides of March " , the ominous
writing is on the Wall !
Time is running out !
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13 Dec 2016
www.hemenparekh.in / blogs