Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a developer in Bangalore. It was glorious. One thing to understand is that in India regular small time business owners are involved in a lot of tax evasion. They don't report their income fully and thus always have a huge stash of cash lying around. The biggest use for this is to buy real estate. Before demonetisation, if you want to buy a house or apartment it was usual to discuss the cash and registration amoun…
> Now, all of this bullshit is gone What? > I'll have to pay everything from my bank account, which will get tracked eventually to the seller I purchase my house from. Sorry dude. You are disconnected from reality. Workaround always exist. People still prefer to pay, as much as possible in cash, to save on that huge registration fees. This demonitization was just a smoke in people's eyes. Those big thugs are still sc…
Of course. Every system has workarounds.
> People still prefer to pay, as much as possible in cash, to save on that huge registration fees.
For large real-estate companies, like Aparna Constructions in Hyderabad, most of the transaction is with fully accounted money. About 10% of the transaction is with un-accounted for cash.
Cash transactions are happening with smaller builders, but even they are finding it difficult to find buyers with a lot of liquid cash.
Now most of the money is being moved through faceless anonymous companies, and those are a step above unaccounted cash, when it comes to tracking and monitoring cash flow in the economy.
> This demonitization was just a smoke in people's eyes.
Perhaps, but along with the introduction of GST, I now find even traditional traders who usually prefer not to give a bill with a sale (for construction items, cement, steel, electrical wires, equipment, etc) are insisting on a GST bill. It was a really big surprise to me.
Also, this is a political masterstroke. Most of the country is below middle class and hardly every see a 2000 Rs. note. Most of them don't have much liquid cash. Most of them are happy that the rich are finally 'getting it' as in, finally there is someone in power who is not afraid to walk the talk.
Whether this is just smoke and mirrors is a different debate. But for most of the country, most of the poor people in the country, it's a eye-brow raising move, a very big talking point for worker level party operatives.
My personal opinion is that these sorts of actions are required to take the populace from cash to digital transactions. Waiting for natural course of movement to digital transactions will take an un-accptably long time.
With demonitization, many farmers, people in remote villages, even street vendors are using digital transactions. Credit-card use has increased, digital payments from mobile phones has increased.
Most importantly, the concept of digital transactions, virtual cash, in some very remote places, even the concept of bank accounts has entered into the greater public consciousness.
> Those big thugs are still scaming the banks and fleeing the country with billions of Rupees.
This happens in even the most developed countries. Even in the US, Europe, UK etc. The only difference is there the money is transferred to accounts in the Cayman islands, here in India, perhaps some other route.