People who don’t have black money need not fear, says finance minister.
Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, on Wednesday, said that the Modi government’s decision to demonetize Rupees 500 and 1000 notes will lead the country to a cashless economy. The move will curb black money in circulation in India and will improve India’s credibility, said Jaitley.
“This is a major setback to the parallel black money economy because a lot of currency operating outside the system will now have to be brought into the banking system… The government believes that this decision has been welcomed everywhere. This major step with help India’s credibility,” Jaitley said while addressing the press on Wednesday.
“This one decision will change the way people spend and keep their money. It will take India towards a cashless economy, it doesn’t merely push the country in that direction, but significantly pushes it,” Jaitley added.
Jaitley reaffirmed that those who do not have black money don’t have to fear. “Those who have lawful money have nothing to fear… There is a sense of satisfaction among honest tax payers over what is happening,” he said.
He said that the people will have to bear the relatively minor inconvenience for a short period of time. But, the long-term advantages of the move are more important. He added that the government will try to minimize the inconvenience.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) clarified that the new 500 and 2000 Rupees notes won’t have a Nano GPS Chip or NGC using which the location of notes can be traced. Hoax news has been doing rounds on social media after Modi’s announcement about demonetization that the new series of notes would have NGC.
“Such a technology does not exist at the moment in the world, then how can we introduce such a feature?” RBI spokesperson Aplana Killawala told News18.
“The only security features of the Rs. 2,000 note are the ones we have mentioned in our releases regarding the note,” an official in the Reserve Bank of India told The Hindu.
The hoax had claimed that the notes could be traced using satellite signals even if it was stored “120 meters below ground level.” But, the clarifications published on the RBI website don’t mention about GPS enabled currency notes.
The security features of Rupees 2,000 notes include latent images, colored strip security threads, and watermarks.