Currency crunch

This refers to the Editorial, ‘Deja vu’ (April 19). In December 2016, a few days after the government stripped high denomination currency notes of their statutory status, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley expressed his satisfaction at the completion of the remonetisation process. The government has since announced a slew of measures to ease the cash crunch in the economy. The alleged crunch, as is being currently observed in certain parts of the country, is merely one of the many teething troubles in a cash-based economy making a transition to a cashless economy, with both the government and the central bank reassuring the citizens of their commitment to remonetise the economy. It is time political parties stopped reaping political dividends by conjuring the “ghost of demonetisation” and stoking unfounded fears in the minds of people by juxtaposing banking troubles and banking frauds.

New Delhi

This government’s excessive fixation on black money was the precursor to its unabated woes on cash availability

vis-a-vis circulation. Far ahead of DeMo, news on printing of ₹2,000 notes had commenced under the guise of countering the flood of high denomination counterfeit notes. When almost all the old ₹1,000 and ₹500 were back in bank vaults, it was clear that the black money spectre hovering over revenue loss had little to do with the high denomination currency in circulation but far more on inadequate digital forensic intelligence, staff strength and control over an archaic tax-collection system. With the economy nevertheless growing in fits and starts after a damaging hiatus, the ₹2,000 note formed the bulwark of cash fluidity and yet in misplaced wisdom these were held back from an increasingly thirsty cash-driven economy. The result today is evidence of lack of clear objectives leading to poor policy reflexes on cash provisioning. The government may still go ahead unthinkingly on soon de-notifying ₹2,000 notes, given the demonstrated disconnect between its various wings.

Navi Mumbai

With more and more banking sector scams emerging, bank customers are on the edge, worried about the security of their investments. Detection of a series of frauds has created a cloud of uncertainty in the banking horizon. The sector is already bruised by the havoc created by the likes of Vijay Mallya. The already grave situation has worsened by the aggravating bad debts position with NPAs showing no worthwhile signs of decline. The alleged involvement of bank chiefs and other senior executives in some of the irregularities and the inability of the banking regulator in curbing such incidents and coming out with some more robust surveillance mechanisms are as baffling as they are disappointing.

Thiruvananthapuram

Repeated calls to bring the cricket governing body — Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) — under the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI) is borne more out of a general tendency in India to attribute reasons for accumulation of wealth and reservations on how the finances are expended (‘Make BCCI a public body: Law panel,’ April 19). Ardent cricket followers would recall that there was a time when India was treated with disdain by other cricket playing countries. It took immense effort from the BCCI to come to a situation now where India has risen to an enviable position of calling the shots in international cricket. It all happened due to the freedom the Board enjoyed in running the affairs of the game over the years. The Board has also taken the game to the interiors, a game which was considered to be the sole preserve of Maharajas and aristocrats. If the Board is brought under RTI, apart from its financial dealings, enquiries on selection of players would also surface with one region trying to vie with others in terms of representation.

Chennai

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