If elections become cheaper, it is good: Jaitley

The minister said the government is taking various initiatives to make India a cashless economy

GN Bureau | November 9, 2016


#Corruption   #Bank Notes   #Black Money   #Cashless Economy   #Rs1000   #Rs500   #Arun Jaitely  


While there is no co-relation between scrapping of higher denomination currency notes with elections, but if this move makes poll costs cheap, it is good, said finance minister Arun Jaitley.

Addressing the media in Delhi on Wednesday over the decision to do away with Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, the minister stressed that there would be significant long term advantages to the economy and said that the government is taking various initiatives to make India a cashless economy.

“There is no chaos or disruption, and if inconvenience prevails for a short period, we will try to resolve it,” he added.

He said the decision to ban currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination will impact the black economy.

The Morarji Desai government, in 1978, had also banned high denomination currency notes to curb black money.

Jaitley said that there cannot be any comparison between the two as the size of the economy and black economy has grown.

The minister said there is adequate currency for replacement of the bank notes that stand withdrawn and it will be easily available at all banks and post offices in 2-3 weeks.

He denied rumors of GPS-enabled chip in new currency notes. He said reports of people profiteering from converting withdrawn currency notes into lower denominations are exaggerated.

Jaitley said that there is a sense of satisfaction among honest tax payers to what is happening.

Comments

 

Other News

When police data becomes the algorithm

For decades, policing has followed a familiar sequence: a crime occurs, the police respond, an investigation produces records and those records become part of the institutional memory of the criminal justice system. Artificial intelligence is beginning to alter that sequence. Instead of merely recording

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Delhi moves to real-time traffic management

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, has approved implementation of the ITMS Project by Delhi Police at an estimated cost of Rs.1,789.52 crore, inclusive of taxes. The project will cover 42 identified traffic corridors and will be implemented in three

MDR on UPI: Can sustainability come without weakening the network?

The extraordinary transaction volumes and value (₹29.82 Lakh crore in August 2026 alone) of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have made it not only an Indian success story, but a global one. In 2024, UPI accounted for nearly 49% of the world’s real-time payment transaction volume, with more th

The Xi-Trump summit: The unending rivalry

Diplomacy is akin to an art, wherein the summitry, conflict resolution and negotiations form apt constituents of the entire context of deal making and “playing for keeps” in the international arena. The Xi-Trump summit in Washington last week, in which the American president broke all conside

“Indians, yet treated like outsiders”

Moving to Delhi-NCR for education can be an exciting experience for students from Northeast India. It gives us a chance to meet new people, experience a different culture and become more independent. But living away from home also comes with challenges that people who have not experienced them may not al

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter