Currency Demonetisation and Future course of Indian Economy

[asgkhan]

I admire this man

We are witnessing a 24 / 7 vicious assault from

1. Corrupt opposition
2. Presstitutes spewing venom on SM/Editorial/Opinion pieces
3. Doomsday scenarios from goras
4. Compromised judiciary

Yet he has tapped into the janata's hope that tomorrow there will be a cleaner India, morally, spiritually, financially.

Truly a karma-yogi and hats off to the fellow Indians who have stood by this momentous decision.

[Rishi Verma]

"David" from Zhengzhou, the city of crooks, China should not post here. But here is an education for him what villages in India think of demonetisation.

Village songs supporting Demonetisation

Unfortunately he will claim he doesn't understand Bhojpuri.

Kaala dhan je rakhle hoi, laagal baa dil pe chot ho, Modiji hajar paan-saua ke band kaile note ho... Bora mein je bhi bhari ke baa rakhle, rowa ta lot pot ho

Ratiya mein band kaila paanch sau hajaria, ab kaise kati din raat ho, jaa E Modi, eika kaila hamni amirawan pe ghaat ho

[shiv]

Now coming back to black money discussion, for a person like me with such a paradigm, it is difficult understand that there is only black money or white money, I earn my money dharmically, I don't want to pay more than 1/6th of my income as tax. Even manusmriti says, a king can collect 1/6th of dhanyam from the farmers. As I pay VAT I don't want to pay income tax, as the law provides for such exemptions. It's still dharmic only, I get lakhs of rupees when I sell my scrap, if I don't show that in my books, it doesn't automatically turn black. But if I kill someone and do theft, then only it's black. Otherwise if my scrap money I use it for adharmic purposes, then it's not black money, and punishable offense. If I use my money in fulfilling my Dharma then it's not black money. I want to feel my wealth, till I attain 'vairagya'.

I want to donate money to Tirupati hundi, as the Lord Venkateswara has borrowed money from kubera for an interest, now it's the duty of every Hindu to put the money into hundi, so that the God won't default. I don't want the government to take away my offerings to subsidise hazz pilgrimage. I don't want the government employees show disrespect to me, and still want me to pay income tax. I have that autonomy, whereas the salaried class doesn't have such luxury. Let those people live and suck up like that. I went through such horrible times that nobody cared for me when I needed money. Now I have sufficient money and I want to spend more on my own welfare,

In fact i visited a swamiji after i failed in my first business, i asked " swamiji should i start anither business or should I join a company as employee?". He asked me " what do you want to do? " i said, "i want to do another business, in fact I wanted you to tell me how my " jataka" is. Is it going to be successful? Is it the right time for me to start another business?". He looked into my 'jataka' and said you are going to fail in the business. I told him "then i will search for a job" he said, "moorkhuda, jataka will tell about about your prarabdakarma phalas, but you can carve out your own destination if you do your karmas according to dharma. otherwise I will have to take another Birth to attain MOKSHA, after i succeed in business".

This is a nice explanation of your viewpoint. But there is a serious problem. I have no idea how many births you have had and how many more you will have. But in this birth you are being forced by what are called "national laws" to deal with money in a particular way. You have written a long explanation about why you disagree, but again your disagreement can get you into trouble. Of course it might mean that any IT officials who trouble you or even Modi himself may have to live more lives maybe even as worms or insects or Pakistanis to atone for the suffering they are imposing on a person such as yourself. But that is a debatable point - in fact by going against what is considered good for society you may anyway be ensuring that you will pay in some later life. That is not anyone else's problem.

I don't know if you care or don't care about what happens in a later life. But you want to ensure that you have things that satisfy your selfish beliefs in this life. There is nothing in your post that says that you care about anyone other than yourself and your views. Your karma will decide what happens to you. You may escape and live this life happily and attain moksha also. You may not. But I think i is fair to say that no one else is interested in your moksha. If you do attain moksha, good for you. If you don't no one cares. Everyone has his selfish motives and the selfish motive of many people is to ensure that every person who earns money in India pays tax. Your philosophy will not prevent anyone from troubling you.

[Picklu]

Payed for an oil maalish via paytm in the local road side saloon. Notice the paytm accepted sign below

[Manish_Sharma]

His target this time is not the innocent folk of Mother India but the "godfather" of the demonitisation/demon scheme (you take your choice) PM Modi.

Snake-Oil's sudden blistering attack against Mr.Modi accusing him of plunder and loot of the wealth of commonfolk would have had great support had his own hands been clean.

Such sophisticated sophistry. I mean now the scheme is demon?

Modi is Godfather?

"snakeoil singh's attack on Modi for loot and plunder of commonfolk would have great support... "

support by who? Common terrorists like christian terrorists of north east like NSCN? Common christo-maoists? Or common porki terrorists entering through Kashmir?

No the scheme is not a 'Demon' and Modi has done no "loot" and "plunder", even if mms was clean he would have no support for such assertions.

[yensoy]

"David" from Zhengzhou, the city of crooks, China should not post here. But here is an education for him what villages in India think of demonetisation.

You ignore the other person's point at your own peril. I think David has been very respectful of forum rules (from the few posts I read), so please keep your xenophobia to yourself. People can have their opinion even if it doesn't agree with yours; even some hard core BRFites are ambivalent about demonetization.

[rahulm]

Hashching creates virtual ID system for first fully-digital loan approvals

Hashching created by 2 desi puttars in Oz. System fully automates bank KYC, loans approvals and can also be used to digitise property registrations. Trouble is our property records are effed up.

[shiv]

But that's the thing, isn't it? What do BRFites know about the villages? Every story I've seen posted here is about someone's experience from cities that even a foreigner like me has heard of. What about the villages? Given that most there don't have bank accounts, smart phones, or even internet access, chances are they're not experiencing demonetization the same way posters here are.

Hmm those articles you posted say nothing about villages and you say BRFites know nothing about villages.

Yet you speak of how much India's poor will suffer. None of your links and none of the Indian media have images from India's villages either

Statements in the absence of data amount to speculation and rhetoric. It is better to stick to the data one has or be accused of bullshitting

By talking about villages without data we are arguing about an unknown quantity and speculating how people must be feeling. And as a rhetorical hedge you use your personal knowledge of BRFites to say "Oh what would you know about villages?"

Let me stick to what I know:

• 1. In India there are no restrictions on travel between cities and villages
• 2. A huge number of city dwellers have relatives in surrounding rural areas and there are people coming and going every hour of day and night
• 3. There is no sudden outpouring of misery and hunger
• 4. 2 months ago the supreme court ruled that the state I reside in, Karnataka, should release more water to a neighbouring state - Tamil Nadu. We then saw the worst civil disturbances we have seen in a decade with uprisings in villages in which protestors blocked highways and stopped traffic between cities and even between states. Earlier similar disturbances have occurred in rural Gujarat (Patels) and the Jat revolt in Haryana. Nothing of the sort has occurred in the last 3 weeks even as cash has only haltingly come into the system
• 5. In the recent water riots a fleet of 80-100 buses was set on fire at a depot in Bangalore. One of the prime culprits was a woman (a Bangalore woman - an alcoholic I was told) who started some of the fires for 100 Rupees (About US $ 1.50). That beings me to another point. While the highway blocking was done spontaneously by villagers who did not have to spend anything but simply had to sit on the highways, the riots in Bangalore and Chennai were instigated by paid rioters. People get paid to riot and there are "history sheeters" - basically "antisocial elements" who will do violent things for money. Massive political rallies in cities are arranged with money - cash. Political parties use slush funds ("black money") to hire fleets of buses and trucks to truck in thousands of people from villages to cities to attend rallies and block roads. (Protest is allowed in democracy) and each of these people is paid - maybe 500 Rupees for the day plus food and water. None of this has happened. Why? because political parties have lost all their black money. They have no money to buy protestors. And villagers are not blocking roads or dying of hunger
• 6. Yes Indians are poor. How poor? The poorest barely get enough to eat - with Rs 5000 per month per family That is about Rs 30 per head per day for a family of 5. That means day to day expenses for most Indians is far faaar less than even the smaller of the two high denomination notes - i.e Rs 500. Most poor people live with Rs 100, Rs 50 and Rs 10 notes. Not Rs 500 notes no matter what the opposition politicians say. There are no poor people with wads of Rs 500 notes.
• 7.The only "sufferers" are people who may have saved up 2000 to 5000 (or even 10,000 Rupees LOL just 10notes of Rs 1000) in cash. These people were given time to exchange that money. It is another matter that the corrupt hoarders employed these poor people in queues to exchange or deposit other people black money. Those queues melted away as soon as the government started marking money exchangers fingers with ink to ensure that they were not returning day after day for exchange
• 8. Data is available from 15 million bank accounts in Bengal - accounts called "Jan Dhan Accounts" started for the poorest of the poor where they were allowed to keep zero balance accounts. 23% were zero balance until 8 November. Now suddenly 15 million accounts of the "poorest of the poor" have all been topped up with exactly 49,000 Rupees in each, 1000 less than the Rs 50,000 that is allowed in a Jan Dhan account. These are the wealth hoarders using poor people to top up their accounts with someone else's black money with a view to forcing those people to withdraw the money when things become quiet. This is what has happened in the rural India that you were talking about . Many of the poor have become "rich" overnight (with about US$ 750 in a previously empty bank account
• 9. Yes there will be problems - but we must stick to data, not speculation
• 10. 70 people died in queues? 70 people died in China in a collapse of a power plant structure. Demonetization anyone? But that is the very rhetoric I rail against.

[shiv]

We don't have data, But here is some speculation

The amount of cash in circulation is Rs 17 lakh crore 17,00,000,00,00,000 or written differently 17,000,000,000,000 - 17 trillion Rupees

86% was in 500 and 1000 notes and that means 14.6 lakh crore or 14.6 trillion

How much of this was in circulation? How much was "static" as stashed funds? No one knows,

The government says 5 lakh crores has been deposited in accounts or exchanged. It is fair to say that most of this 5 lakh crore would be what scared, honest and poor people had. They all thronged the banks like you and me to deposit the notes they had. Perhaps a small percentage is black money - let me simply ignore that for convenience.

That means that approximately 10 lakh crores of black money has been hoarded and has not yet been declared and given to the banks.

If this figure is accurate it means that 70% of the 500/1000 Rupee notes were simply out of circulation or not ready to be circulated - and kept in reserve for big deals like property, medical college seat, elections

That also means that the population of India was managing with just 7.5 Lakh crores in cash of which 33% was in notes of less than 100, and 67% of 500 or more. The rest of the printed cash was being used for deals that were out of reach for the ordinary Indian. If the filthy rich have lost Rs 10 lakh crores - it sounds really good to me

[Bart S]

online payments, particularly by street and petty vendors are a feel good story right now. There aren't enough numbers to signify a tipping point which is what is needed. Not yet anyway. Early days.

Yesterday, I hailed an auto,in old Pune. The driver asked "you have change?" to which i retorted " You have payTM" ? He went quiet for a while. I hectored him, as you you do Pune auto wallas-from being stuck in the old times. Being stubborn and resistant to change to you think the world should revolve around you etc etc.

At the end, he said, sir, if I knew how I would have it. So after my ride, I spent 10 minutes with him, downloaded the App on his phone and showed him how it works. He was happy. Hop fully, he takes it to its logical conclusion

payTM and Oxigen should have mobile kiosks which move around auto stands and pav wada and bhel wallas educating and enrolling to create a online payments movement.

There are several issues that the RBI needs to fix:
[*]Wallets are proprietary, so this is going to lead to a fragmented user base and counterproductive really when we are trying to move towards a cashless economy. There must be a common standard that everybody should follow, that guarantees that any approved wallet app can pay any other approved wallet app, and this needs to come from the RBI rather than industry tieups. Just like card machines accept all the major cards.
[*]There must be full liquidity. Right now paytm and other wallets make it difficult to transfer money out of a wallet and to a bank account, and charge for it. RBI must curtail that.
[*]The solution for that I think is to force everyone to use UPI. All banks must use UPI, all wallets must use UPI, and there must be not transaction fees for it. UPI works more like a debit card (i.e directly against a bank account) and is much better than a wallet anyway. Much more legit than the likes of patym whose main focus seems to be trying to scam people into 'deals' and heavy advertising of the same. I am on one hand delighted that people are going in for cashless payment systems, but disappointed that crap like paytm is getting widespread adoption and publicity.

[Bart S]

Buddy let me call you out.

Will the consumer stop going to a cash only restaurant?

Yes. Never been to restaurant that doesn't accept debit/credit cards.

A cash only retailer?

Yes. Cash transaction were limited to sub-100 groceries till last month. Stopped altogether now.

Will govt officers stop demanding cash bribes?

Already refused the special branch cops for passport verifications. They couldn't stop it.

Will the public refuse to pay?

Passport. Property registration. Mutation. Electricity connection transfer. Vehicle registration. PAN. Aadhaar. EIC. Never paid a penny.

Will the power of the officer to harass be under threat? Will these change?

Threat to harass is only possible when you bribe once and your own paperwork is out of order.

And guess what a PF transfer was held up and bribe was implied. A RTI fixed it. In 3 working days.

And this coming from one of the most corrupt and backward state.

Atleast on BRF speak of what's possible. Some "Bharat Rakshak" you are.

+1000 Sir

[rahulm]

Indeed UPI would be ideal - much better than wallets. For better or for worse wallets have first mover advantage and therefore have momentum. There needs to be an overt and sustained push from GOI towards UPI or it will languish.

[habal]

the going rate for passport verification 'house visits' are Rs. 500. You are just supposed to shut up and pay.

If you don't pay that money, then the cop will ask all manner of silly questions and in the end make out a report terming that applicant as Osama's cousin.

[Manish_Sharma]

http://swarajyamag.com/economics/heres- ... tion-drive

Here’s What These 5 Ex-RBI Governors Have To Say About Modi’s Demonetisation Drive

1) Y.V. Reddy who served as the governor of the Reserve Bank Of India from 2003-2008, when economy saw a massive boom, has endorsed the decision taken by the Modi government. Mr. Reddy termed the timing of the move “perfect” as it comes right before the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is all set to be implemented.

It is a historic moment. There is bound to be paradigm shift in the economic and political system. With the GST on the anvil, the system is ripe for a change. However, to take it forward, contract enforcement and judicial processes will have to play active role. It is impossible to have a big change without some inconvenience and some temporary disruptions.

The Economic Times

2) C. Rangarajan served as governor of the RBI in the post-liberalisation era from 1992-1997. He called the demonetisation move a “standard prescription” that was tried in the past, however, he added, that this time the government was targeting those who accumulated money, who issue fake currency and those financing terrorism. Mr. Rangarajan has also called for measures so that black money doesn’t get generated in future.

The government’s move to withdraw Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes is a standard prescription in extinguishing unaccounted money. This has been tried in the past. But the government (this time) had three targets: those who accumulated money, who issue fake currency and those financing terrorism, the last two being of different nature. But as far as black money is concerned, this measure is a step towards reducing black money or unaccounted money from the system. It will affect the retail trade as most of the transactions are done using cash. There are some other sectors in the economy like real estate, jewellery where cash has become a major player for transaction. Those will undergo a fundamental change.

3) D. Subbarao, who was at the helm at the RBI post 2008 financial crisis, has said that positives of the current demonetization drive outweighed the negatives. However, he cautioned the RBI against treating the money not returned during the current drive as profit and handing over it to the government.

If you ride out the short-term pain, the positives will be substantial, be in terms of attracting investments, and also getting people to move from physical cash to electronic transactions. The money being deposited in the banks, as against having it in the pocket, or under the pillow, was good for the economy.Banks will multiply the money when it is with them. It will encourage banks to get lending rates down, even if the RBI does not ease any further…. demonetization will also help improve financial inclusion... banks will be able to give out more credit and all this will have a multiplier effect.

Livemint

4) Dr. Raghuram Rajan, the previous RBI governor, hasn’t commented on the current drive. But on an earlier occasion, he had raised doubts about the effectiveness of demonetisation as a way of cleaning the financial system of black money. Rajan had suggested that it is better to focus on making improvements in tracking tax data and ramping up tax administration.

In the past demonetisation has been thought off as a way of getting black money out of circulation. Because people then have to come and say “how do I have this ten crores in cash sitting in my safe” and they have to explain where they got the money from. It is often cited as a solution. Unfortunately, my sense is the clever find ways around it.They find ways to divide up their hoard in to many smaller pieces. You do find that people who haven’t thought of a way to convert black to white, throw it into the Hundi in some temples. I think there are ways around demonetization. It is not that easy to flush out the black money.

The Huffington Post

5) Bimal Jalan, served from 1997-2003, overseeing the transition of the RBI from 20th century to 21st. He has termed the demonetisation drive as positive and good “in terms of what the intention is.” When asked whether the scheme will achieve its purpose, Mr Jalan said that ‘it would take three-four months to see how it works.’

It is very positive and good for us in terms of what the intention is. And over a period of time as I think he also mentioned that it will be easy to see what else needs to be done to make it available, make it accessible to the people who do not have bank account and let us hope it works out. The most crucial issue at the moment is how to increase the spread in the banking system that is the most crucial issue. The second related most important issue is that in rural areas or in semi-urban area where there are no banks accounts for the poor or for the agriculturists and, then what is to be done with their notes if they do not have a bank account.

The Economic Times

[Dumal]

the going rate for passport verification 'house visits' are Rs. 500. You are just supposed to shut up and pay.

If you don't pay that money, then the cop will ask all manner of silly questions and in the end make out a report terming that applicant as Osama's cousin.

My experience in Chennai - the cops were very prompt, called within 24-48hrs, and more than once to confirm we were available and visited at agreed times promptly, asked relevant questions and very politely completed their job and left with no hint of any expectation of money or anything else. This was the case in 2008 when we applied for an adult and 2 minor children and in 2016 for a similar set of passports. I couldn't have been more pleased with how it all went. In fact, I used to wonder after they left, how else I can show my appreciation to them other than just saying "Thank you!"

[Schmidt]

the going rate for passport verification 'house visits' are Rs. 500. You are just supposed to shut up and pay.

If you don't pay that money, then the cop will ask all manner of silly questions and in the end make out a report terming that applicant as Osama's cousin.

My experience in Chennai - the cops were very prompt, called within 24-48hrs, and more than once to confirm we were available and visited at agreed times promptly, asked relevant questions and very politely completed their job and left with no hint of any expectation of money or anything else. This was the case in 2008 when we applied for an adult and 2 minor children and in 2016 for a similar set of passports. I couldn't have been more pleased with how it all went. In fact, I used to wonder after they left, how else I can show my appreciation to them other than just saying "Thank you!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

True that - got both my kids passports renewed recently in Chennai

The plainclothes cop who came for the verification asked the mandatory questions and left quickly. In both cases I had the requisite money ready at hand , but there was no need. Both times my wife kept asking if I had missed any signal and whether there would be consequences , but the renewals went through without any issues.

[Yagnasri]

Normally in passport verification, they will not take any money even in Bangalore also. I have not given a single paise to the police, and they have not asked. I guess they also know whom to ask and whom not to ask.

We are on right track. All the international MSM saying that it is bad.

[Bart S]

Also, passport verification is not required for renewals if within the same city as the passport being renewed.

The postman who delivers the passports also sometimes ask for a bribe, but there it is more like a tip than any threat because your passport is already issued and if they mess with it there will be hell to pay for them.

[manjgu]

today i went to deposit Rs 1L in my citibank savings a/c with PAN card.they refused to accept the deposit and said can only deposit Rs 49000 with PAN card..for more then 50K bring address proof !! yesterday deposited Rs 67K in my better halfs a/c with just PAN card in HDFC Bank!! the citibank manager said cash is in short supply. people withdrawing from a/c exhausts the cash quickly. NO citibank ATM working ..Citibank N.Place, Delhi.

[rahulm]

I hope the current fracas in the Parliament doesn't impact the April GST implementation deadline.

Most small and medium businesses I have spoken to (> 50) have no idea what's expected of them and are unprepared. Nobody except 1 I spoke to had any idea about input tax credits and what it will mean for them.

I would have thought the government should be into advertisement overdrive already.

[shiv]

Normally in passport verification, they will not take any money even in Bangalore also. I have not given a single paise to the police, and they have not asked. I guess they also know whom to ask and whom not to ask.

We are on right track. All the international MSM saying that it is bad.

Same here No money demanded or paid BLR

[chetak]

today i went to deposit Rs 1L in my citibank savings a/c with PAN card.they refused to accept the deposit and said can only deposit Rs 49000 with PAN card..for more then 50K bring address proof !! yesterday deposited Rs 67K in my better halfs a/c with just PAN card in HDFC Bank!! the citibank manager said cash is in short supply. people withdrawing from a/c exhausts the cash quickly. NO citibank ATM working ..Citibank N.Place, Delhi.

Isn't it the other way around??

<50K, no pan card, >50K pan card.

Is your KYC at the bank up to date??. Buggers are messing with you or they are just plain ignorant

[Yagnasri]

http://www.financialexpress.com/industr ... bi/455370/

Lot of problems when you have too much money with you also.

You need PAN card for more than 50k and not less than that. Report the matter to Banking ombudsman who may an office in your city. (I am not sure of that)

[Bart S]

today i went to deposit Rs 1L in my citibank savings a/c with PAN card.they refused to accept the deposit and said can only deposit Rs 49000 with PAN card..for more then 50K bring address proof !! yesterday deposited Rs 67K in my better halfs a/c with just PAN card in HDFC Bank!! the citibank manager said cash is in short supply. people withdrawing from a/c exhausts the cash quickly. NO citibank ATM working ..Citibank N.Place, Delhi.

The problem might be that your KYC details are not up to date. If those are then there should be no issue.

[habal]

small correction: ₹ 500 is going rate for police verification for govt jobs. (state govt).

similarly for state govt jobs deputy civil surgeon seal of health is also 500-1000 depending upon individual.

passport verification in big cities is more or less without harassment.

[pankajs]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/busi ... 620291.cms

NEW DELHI: A minimum of 50% tax may be levied on unexplained bank deposits made using the banned currency notes up to December 30 along with a 4-year lock in period for half of the remaining amount under the amendments to tax law the government plans to bring in Parliament shortly.

However, a higher 90% tax and penalty could be imposed if assessees do not declare the unaccounted cash voluntarily.

<snip>

The tax rate however cannot be the same as charged to honest tax payers. It also could not be the 45 per cent tax and penalty charged on hereto undisclosed wealth brought to books using a one-time compliance window under the Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) that ended on September 30.

Sources said since the black money holder did not utilise the government offer to declare his ill-gotten wealth, he should pay a higher rate of tax now and curbs placed on use of that money.

[Rishi Verma]

4-yr lock-in plus 50% tax for unexplainable deposits

Delayed fuse cluster bombs keep going off. I want to know how many papis will get heart attack with daily dhamakas. Modi was very clear in his Japan speech to NRI-sans that he is going after crooks relentlessly.

[yensoy]

The tax/penalty is not a slam dunk.

If I deposit 10 lakhs tomorrow in cash and claim that in my business I have to pay my suppliers 9 lakhs in cash, then my income is only 1 lakh which is taxed at 0%. If I can show legitimate business then government doesn't have a case against me. Examples of such businesses include small scale/textile/hosiery/handicraft/handloom sector which is based on sourcing from families and small operators.

A lot of "explanation" will be asked for, and there is a lot of room for corruption here which can determine how well this opportunity is used or misused. Hopefully PMO/FinMin have their eyes and ears tuned to the next wave of enforcement.

[Bart S]

50% is too low

[arvin]

I am not able to figure why these worthies born during pre ww2 are still hanging around in public life:

Manmohan Singh born in 1932
LK Advani born in 1927
Sartaj Aziz born in 1929
Motilal Vohra born in 1928
Ram Jethmalani born in 1923

what is it that they want to see?

[chetak]

I am not able to figure why these worthies born during pre ww2 are still hanging around in public life:

Manmohan Singh born in 1932
LK Advani born in 1927
Sartaj Aziz born in 1929
Motilal Vohra born in 1928
Ram Jethmalani born in 1923

what is it that they want to see?

jethmalani's sole purpose seems to be hanging on the lutyen's house, by hook or by crook and he has managed to get himself a RS seat by promising lulloo that he will get all cases against him dropped.

[chetak]

small correction: ₹ 500 is going rate for police verification for govt jobs. (state govt).

similarly for state govt jobs deputy civil surgeon seal of health is also 500-1000 depending upon individual.

passport verification in big cities is more or less without harassment.

the buggers also charge heavily to sign the doctor's certificate for the driver's licence application or renewal

[arshyam]

"David" from Zhengzhou, the city of crooks, China should not post here. But here is an education for him what villages in India think of demonetisation.

You ignore the other person's point at your own peril. I think David has been very respectful of forum rules (from the few posts I read), so please keep your xenophobia to yourself. People can have their opinion even if it doesn't agree with yours; even some hard core BRFites are ambivalent about demonetization.

I fully second this. I don't agree with his points either, especially the reliance on some foreign media who don't know an India outside of Delhi and the farmhouses in the NCR region. But to say someone should not post is not correct. We don't want to be an echo chamber, and many non Indian posters have left of late. Let's discuss on merits and call out trolling. So far, I haven't seen any of the latter in DavidD's posts. JMT and all that.

[kmkraoind]

4-yr lock-in plus 50% tax for unexplainable deposits

Delayed fuse cluster bombs keep going off. I want to know how many papis will get heart attack with daily dhamakas. Modi was very clear in his Japan speech to NRI-sans that he is going after crooks relentlessly.

If somebody cribs, why NaMo govt is changing rules so fast, here is one perfect explanation, we too could use same logic and counter.

Yusuf Unjhawala @YusufDFI

Dumb argument. Decisions are taken based on feedback, ground situation. Like in war, strategic objective fixed, tactics change as required twitter.com/rssurjewala/st…

[Rishi Verma]

You ignore the other person's point at your own peril. I think David has been very respectful of forum rules (from the few posts I read), so please keep your xenophobia

I fully second this. I don't agree with his points either

OT of you to pontificate. There have been cases for someone being banned for being commie or kanhaiya-kumar types. Chinese can post away in related threads. If he is an expert, fine, he just brings communist views on NaMo's surgical strikes... /OT

[manjgu]

on opposition charge of mis management of demonetization ... who will answer for the deaths due to mis management from 1947 till date...the mismanagement of education, health, security, infrastructure etc etc ... if there was any honesty all the politicians need to be hanged especially the kangressi...

[Sachin]

the going rate for passport verification 'house visits' are Rs. 500. You are just supposed to shut up and pay.

Hmm.. from what I observed at KL, the SB Head constables have stopped asking for any money. One thing, even their verficiation system is now online. SMS alerts come from the TCS rolled out Passport Seva Kendra the moment the police verification is initiated. In KL, an alert also comes when they start the enquiry. The enquiry status can also be tracked online. The moment the SB clears/rejects the verification round, the actual status and a summary of the comments given by the SB HC is sent as an alert to the applicant. So all these are now auditable and trackable. From what I could understand (at least in KL), the verficiation is more stringent and any faulty move from the PC/HC, they would land up in big hot soup. Rs. 500 is now not worth the risk. Most of the cops now seems to be cherishing their jobs.

Also, passport verification is not required for renewals if within the same city as the passport being renewed.

Don't think so that is the case. They now have a Pre-verification and Post-verification issue of passports. If renewal happens using the same address (as of the earlier passport), passport gets issued very quickly. In a matter of hours. The police verification is done AFTER that (may be a week later). Any change in the addresses, the police verification comes first. Police verification still happens for every passport issue/renewal.

A minimum of 50% tax may be levied on unexplained bank deposits made using the banned currency notes up to December 30 along with a 4-year lock in period for half of the remaining amount under the amendments to tax law the government plans to bring in Parliament shortly.

And this I feel would really fit the bill of being a "money bill", and hence it only needs to be passed in the Lok Sabha. Yechuri & Co sitting in Rajya Sabha with a glee would be asked to go and take a hike.

[Vikas]

Hypothetically, If SC declares this Demonetization exercise as Unconstitutional, What would be the repercussions.
Is there any Ordinance that GoI can bring to make SC order redundant or would the Govt be forced to roll back the whole exercise and lose face.
After 31st Dec, Any order of SC would not be worth the paper it is written on.

[shiv]

Hypothetically, If SC declares this Demonetization exercise as Unconstitutional, What would be the repercussions.
Is there any Ordinance that GoI can bring to make SC order redundant or would the Govt be forced to roll back the whole exercise and lose face.
After 31st Dec, Any order of SC would not be worth the paper it is written on.

It cannot be rolled back. It was rolled out with legal advice on the implications. These things are not done on a whim.

[Bart S]

Also, passport verification is not required for renewals if within the same city as the passport being renewed.

Don't think so that is the case. They now have a Pre-verification and Post-verification issue of passports. If renewal happens using the same address (as of the earlier passport), passport gets issued very quickly. In a matter of hours. The police verification is done AFTER that (may be a week later). Any change in the addresses, the police verification comes first. Police verification still happens for every passport issue/renewal.

FWIW, when I renewed mine, there was no verification. The address was different but city was the same.