Indian Government on Thursday, justified its decision of Demonetizing the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes at Supreme Court and ensured that the measure will eliminate Black Money and fake Notes that are being injected by Pakistan into the Indian Economy. They also added that this will further help the middle class and poor of the nation.
According to the estimates, around 22 lakh Rs 1000 fake notes were in circulation during the year 2014-2015 and the number of Rs 500 fake notes amounted to 37.5 lakh.
While pointing out the positive impacts of Demonetisation, Centre said that its decision will be beneficial for Indian Economy, further creating new jobs and also make Urban Housing affordable to the poor.
Here is the Centre’s take on Terrorism.
The withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes will constraint terror funding as, Cross Border and Domestic terrorism are being funded by Black Money. In an clear reference to Pakistan’s ISI, Centre said that hostile intelligence agencies are pumping huge amount of fake currency notes to finance their resources and operations in India.
On the Cash Crunch Faced by Indians
Responding to the Apex Court’s query about the measures taken to bringing relief to people, the Central Government said that this move will eliminate black money which has resulted in a parallel economy, the poor and middle class being the worst sufferers.
A high-level committee is formed to monitor the situation on daily basis and appropriate decisions are being taken to ensure that no one suffers due to the move.
The replacement of old notes by way of exchange and deposit is being done on a large scale, involving 1.30 lakh bank branches, 2.01 lakh ATMs, One lakh banking correspondents and 1.5 lakh post offices, the Government reported in the Affidavit filed with the Supreme Court.
Justifying their decision.
Due to the excessive use of cash in Real Estate Sector, housing in Urban Sector suffer from an artificial price rise. An increase in ‘over the board’ transactions will definitely prove helpful in making housing more affordable to everyone.
This will further will help in reduction of tax avoidance and bring more transactions into the formal economy.
“A thrust has been made for increasing the digital payments in the economy through credit and debit cards, internet banking, mobile apps and e-wallets. In the last ten days there has been a nearly 300 percent jump in the number of transactions that have taken place by the use of cards alone,” the Affidavit said.
The government representatives also said that that the problems faced by the people will bore fruit in the future and the decision was taken for the betterment of the whole nation.
However, backing down from his promise to increase the limit on exchange of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, PM Modi announced that the people can no longer exchange their old currency notes at banks and post offices from Thursday Midnight. The announcement has further increased the problems that people were facing earlier and a ‘cloud of confusion’ has emerged all over the nation.
To clear this confusion, we are listing the alternatives that you can follow.
- RBI will accept exchange of old notes but with a limit of Rs 2000 per day
- Payments under the previously exempted categories like Petrol pumps and Pharmacies can be done through Rs 500 notes.
- Both the notes will be accepted in payments made to Government Colleges.
- Government Schools will accept the payments but with a cap of Rs 2000.
- Pre-paid mobile top up can be done with Rs 500 notes but with a similar cap of Rs 500.
- Free toll policy has been extended till 2nd December and afterwards only Rs 500 notes will be accepted.
So from now on, Rs 1000 notes will not be accepted AT ALL and you can only deposit them in your bank accounts or exchange them with RBI.
Since the 8th November announcement regarding the demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, various modifications have been done to the existing policies and now people are not only worried about their cash but are also fretting over the possible sudden changes in the future.
Don’t you think that Demonetisation is turning out to be a rushed decision by the PM Modi led Government?
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25 November 2016
Rohan Jaitly