The Recent Demonetization : Significant, but still India has a long way to go.

Total cleaning-up, not possible. But this move, aided by further sustainable and effective steps might do .

Much has been said about the Prime Minister’s decision to demonetize the higher denomination money of Rs 500 and Rs 2000 notes. Surgical strike on black money , masterstroke, trump card to UP assembly polls, disaster – to name a few of the country’s reactions , are extremes . I am of the view that, it is a developmental step in driving India to a cashless economy, definitely a well-planned step (considering the link between the series of events from Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana to the recent demonetization policy) , an important step to tackle counterfeit money (for now), the funding industry of the terrorism gets half-paralysed for now and yes, a slightly feeble but necessary hammer-hit on the corrupt money.

The problem is , the demonetization step is touted as a surgical strike against black money . The term ‘Black Money‘ is a wider term  spreading over a large shadowy area of corruption , money-laundering , tax evasions , unaccounted stashed wealth in the form of gold and in foreign banks and so on. Definitely, the current step alone cannot free the Indian economy from all these festerings. Even India’s surgical strikes didn’t blow up the whole of terrorism, the LeT and JeM still breathe. So the perception that this (surgical) strike is going to cleanse the Indian economy completely is over the top. As the Chinese media today described the move as ‘bold and startling‘ but far from enough.

Still, it’s a significant step towards financial cleansing.

Sadly, there’s a section in the political class who are bent on providing resistance to the move. A chief Minister who has won his election on the agenda of standing against corruption argues, that Rs 2000 notes will add to the menace, giving baseless reasoning, of a sum of money taking less space if stacked up with 2000 notes and he’s the same person who perhaps believes in “Cure is better than prevention”, Delhi’s alarming pollution level is a testimony to his belief.  It’s no surprise that political parties who adulate their head with garland of notes and parties who are unable to relate their loss to their mega scams, oppose this . Some sight inconvenience to the people as their prime concern while others are busy nitpicking the execution flaws.

“It’s rule of the nature, that change and convenience cannot be at the same time.”

As already stated, this single step or lets’s say the series of steps taken by the Modi regime -A SC monitored SIT on black money, Repair of ‘Double Tax Avoidance Agreement'(DTAA) with Mauritius , talks on automatic information exchange agreements with tax safe-heavens like Switzerland which is going to bear fruits soon, the settlement of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries on sharing of information of foreign bank account holders with their home countries from Jan 2017, the Income declaration scheme(IDS) 2016 which brought back Rs 65,250 crores of black money as of oct 1,2016, penalty on Real Estate Transactions done in cash exceeding the set limit of Rs 20,000  , the benami transactions(Prohibition) amendment act 2016 -are tool only to curb a fractional or some part of the colossal rot of black money. But as promised by our PM at a foundation event in Goa, he has several projects in the pipeline  and he’s going to bring in more stringent laws to tackle this menace and we, as faithful citizens of this country should look forward to it with all readiness.

Let’s join our hands in this crusade against black money, counterfeit money and funding of terrorism across the border. Parallel economy is a big loss to the Indian economy.