February end this column reported facts about fake currency. The National SecurityCouncil has reportedly discussed the problem. No results are visible. ...
February end this column reported facts about fake currency. The National SecurityCouncil has reportedly discussed the problem. No results are visible. Once again thiscolumn gives warning. The crisis is deadly. It is spreading like cancer. The credibilityof our currency is gradually eroding. One day we could wake up to find ourselves floodedwith fake notes and our economy ruined.
Consider this. Suppose I give you five hundred rupee notes in payment for your bill.You refuse to take them. I can prosecute you and you would go to jail for not acceptinglegal tender. That is the law.
Suppose you accept the money and it contains fake notes. You are again open toprosecution and can be sent to jail. Therefore, each citizen, old and illiterate andyoung, must know how to distinguish immediately the genuine from the fake note.
In fact, often, even banks cannot detect fake notes! There have been innumerableinstances of banks handing out currency notes later identified by bank authoritiesthemselves to be counterfeit. In one instance, the victim rushed to the bank andcomplained that two of the notes in the money just drawn from the bank were counterfeit.The bank did not deny this. But, it refused to accept responsibility because the bundlehad been opened.
Such instances are multiplying. Public confidence in currency is badly shaken. Peopleopenly refuse to accept large denomination notes. Very often bank employees themselvesinnocently pass fake currency to customers, then hastily destroy the notes to escapepolice action.
We know the law is an ass. But why should government be a jackass? Can't it see theshadow of a huge crisis looming? Is exploitation of our present situation beyond thecapacity of hostile foreign forces? The government shouldn't be lulled by the currentdiplomacy of our neighbours. It should focus on ground realities.
If the Reserve Bank commissioned an unsuitable firm to print our currency notes, asthis column alleged earlier, the time to own up is now. Rs 1,89,319 crore worth of totalcurrency is in circulation. To demonetise and replace all the five hundred and one hundredrupee notes would cost roughly Rs 500 crore. That's peanuts. Demonetisation would destroynot only fake money but also black money. Why can't the government act now? Later could betragically late.
Who can be takers
For stability breakers
So called movers and shakers
Who are a bunch of fakers?