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India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

bbc.com

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Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#31

Post by kamaal »

Manishearth wrote: post #25
0xmohit wrote: post #16

I am amazed the amount of selfishness we exhibit. If I am unable to pick up groceries for the lack of cash, I can surely choose to order it online (using a credit/debt card). A vast majority of Indians cannot. A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. They will be forced to exchange their now illegal currency with the help of agents who would charge them 50 to 60%. Most of the ATMs are out of cash. The…

> A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. Forget banks, many don't have ID . Ration cards exist, but those are tied to your household so you may not easily be able to get access to your ration card (say if you're in a city with family -- and ration card -- back home). In case of estranged women it's even hader. Without ID they can't exchange larger amounts. It's also hard to create a new bank account…

Actually dealing with banks is a luxury which Urban Indians assume is available for everyone. Its not.

Most banks are huge red tape in India and corruption is quite common. Even to dispense cash/loans a lot of times local rural banks ask for bribe. Which is why most people go a distance to avoid dealing with banks.

This problem was addressed by co-operative societies to an extent, but it doesn't scale though.

Debit/Credit/Electronic transfers are for the privileged in India.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#32

Post by andrewvijay »

It was said that it was to remove black money from the market but the percentage of cash in black money is only 6%. The remaining are assets mostly outside of India. And such a major move affecting a billion people must have been well thought out to avoid the chaos. There have been couple of deaths because of this. Two children were dead because docs refused to accept old currency for admission in hospitals. But questioning this is being termed as anti national. Hope this fake nationalism stunts end soon.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#33

Post by 0xmohit »

Manishearth wrote: post #25
0xmohit wrote: post #16

I am amazed the amount of selfishness we exhibit. If I am unable to pick up groceries for the lack of cash, I can surely choose to order it online (using a credit/debt card). A vast majority of Indians cannot. A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. They will be forced to exchange their now illegal currency with the help of agents who would charge them 50 to 60%. Most of the ATMs are out of cash. The…

> A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. Forget banks, many don't have ID . Ration cards exist, but those are tied to your household so you may not easily be able to get access to your ration card (say if you're in a city with family -- and ration card -- back home). In case of estranged women it's even hader. Without ID they can't exchange larger amounts. It's also hard to create a new bank account…

  This is going to be hard to work through for a few. Especially
  those with lower income who keep most of their life savings in
  cash.
They don't keep their savings in cash because of will, but because they are essentially forced to. I've seen several people (maids and such) struggling forever to open a bank account or even get a LPG connection.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#34

Post by [deleted] »

linuxkerneldev wrote: post #2

My understanding is that India's new rules on the high denomination notes was intended to curtail corruption. This was a major topic of discussion in my workplace as we have many Indian developers. Most of them were very proud that this action was taken. So it was a surprise to me to read the significantly negative tone in the BBC article. As a check, I googled "accuracy of BBC articles on India" and encountered the…

[deleted]

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#35

Post by Manishearth »

kamaal wrote: post #31
Manishearth wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A majority of Indians don't have access to banks either. Forget banks, many don't have ID . Ration cards exist, but those are tied to your household so you may not easily be able to get access to your ration card (say if you're in a city with family -- and ration card -- back home). In case of estranged women it's even hader. Without ID they can't exchange larger amounts. It's also hard to create a new bank account…

Actually dealing with banks is a luxury which Urban Indians assume is available for everyone. Its not. Most banks are huge red tape in India and corruption is quite common. Even to dispense cash/loans a lot of times local rural banks ask for bribe. Which is why most people go a distance to avoid dealing with banks. This problem was addressed by co-operative societies to an extent, but it doesn't scale though. Debit/C…

FWIW post office savings and patpedhis exist and can be a viable alternative to banks, but you're right in that it's still problematic (and these can be more prone to corruption).

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#36

Post by [deleted] »

andrewvijay wrote: post #32

It was said that it was to remove black money from the market but the percentage of cash in black money is only 6%. The remaining are assets mostly outside of India. And such a major move affecting a billion people must have been well thought out to avoid the chaos. There have been couple of deaths because of this. Two children were dead because docs refused to accept old currency for admission in hospitals. But ques…

[deleted]

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#37

Post by swatkat »

Ah! Yet another "anti-India" article by BBC ;) This is not the first time BBC is doing it (can we call it as "propaganda"?) ;) I've seen a few firsthand instances of people who hoarded illegal cash impacted by this demonetization move. Yesterday, somebody even dumped wads of cash into a lake in Bangalore (near KR Puram area).

I suggest people here to read this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/5c195e/do_you_guys_k...

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#38

Post by wav-part »

0xmohit wrote: post #19
wav-part wrote: post #12

My initial gut reaction is/was, a costly political stunt to fullfill an election promise. But I will wait when we have figures about cost to economy vs additional tax revenue. It also should be taken into account that Rupee now is even more unlikely to become a global currency. Instead of money going directly to corrupt bureaucrats now it will directly going to politicians to be spent on unsustainable welfare (subsid…

I suppose that if election promises were to be fulfilled then the government might have chosen to act upon those stashing billions of dollars in tax havens abroad.

I find even the concept of income tax injustice at massive scale. But I have a feeling that this was a least costly way to shut up a socialist population. Assuming Modi is not just another socialist and this is the last of it we are seeing.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#39

Post by danparsonson »

essdas wrote: post #27

I think the BBC has completely missed the sentiment on the ground. There is widespread support for this. Every single person I've spoken to in the long queues near ATMs have expressed that they don't mind the inconvenience because it will help the country.

But then again, by definition those are not the people who are hurt the worst, because they have bank accounts.

Re: India raises withdrawal limit as rupee anger mounts

#40

Post by somedangedname »

0xmohit wrote: post #24
firasd wrote: post #18

What's interesting is that Bollywood stars whose names were in the Panama Papers are lauding this 'demonitisation' move... it kinda underscores that real 'black money' isn't stuffed in mattresses, it's stored more cleverly in different types of assets, companies, offshore accounts. Raghuram Rajan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, had this to say a couple years ago about the idea: “Unfortunately, my sense…

What's interesting is that Bollywood stars whose names were in the Panama Papers are lauding this 'demonitisation' move... Those Bollywood stars are the ones who (1) own huge stretches of agricultural land posing as farmers , (2) own benami properties. Perhaps publicly supporting anything a ruling government says is their way to demonstrate support towards the government and avoid any scrutiny.

"This (demonetisation) is not an end. I have more projects in mind to make India corruption-free. …. We will take action against ‘benami’ property." - PM Modi [0]

Whether he takes further action and if those actions will be effective remain to be seen.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/pm-n...

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