Bracket on corruption

For the last ten days we have been living in India under communism. I mean, no cash at all. And since India is a country of exclusively cash payments, we do not pay anything anywhere. We come to the grocery store, pick up products, say: “No money!” - and expressively look at the seller. The seller nods with genuine understanding and lets go in peace: “No problem!”

We are implementing the same scenario in cafes, fruit shops, hardware stores, pharmacies, markets and kiosks of mobile operators: we take what we need and No money! — no problem! If I had known that this was possible, I would have joined the Komsomol much more cheerfully during my school years.

We owe our modest household success to the care of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the traditional values ​​party Bharatiya Janati, who on the evening of November 8 unexpectedly told the nation about the immediate (at midnight) withdrawal from circulation of the two largest denominations: 500 and 1000 rupees (approximately 500 and 1000 rubles at the current exchange rate).

This good deed was done in order to combat "the financing of terrorism with counterfeit banknotes and the use of this money for subversive activities: espionage, illegal importation of weapons, drugs and other smuggling into India."

The effect of the staggering blow to the "black money" was all the more amazing because the denominations of 500 and 1000 rupees account for 86% of the total cash supply of the country, in which cash accounts for 87% of all transactions.

Banks did not know about the “reform” in advance, so on Wednesday, November 9, ATMs were closed, on Thursday they were allowed to issue 2,000 rupees a day, and on Friday the amount doubled.

As for cash savings, stored, of course, in those very 500 and 1000-rupiah bills, they were allowed to take them to banks and credit them to their account until December 30th. You can also withdraw 4,000 rupees per day from your account.

A small problem: only 27% of Indian villages have bank branches within a radius of 5 kilometers, and most of the inhabitants of these villages did not have any bank accounts at all, from time immemorial they lived exclusively in the sphere of cash relations.

Another small problem: on November 9, it became known that all bank deposits exceeding 250,000 rupees are subject to taxation and a 200 percent penalty if a “discrepancy with declared income” is found.

The Indian people reacted with stoic understanding to the crushing blow against terrorism, which Narendra Modi promised to inflict at the dawn of his election campaign. Millions of ordinary citizens disciplined and meekly stand these days in long queues at ATMs (where there is cash) and, in order to pass the time, emotionally express support and approval for the care of those in power.

We, modest tourists, felt uncomfortable today for private communist nirvana, so we tried to get some cash, but, unfortunately, the only two ATMs in the area where real money turned out, refused to accept Russian bank cards.

Retreating to the friendly exclamations of support from the surrounding public, I thought about the amazing ability of all the fighters against corruption and for “traditional values” in the world (for some reason, both of these fetishes always go hand in hand!) to realize their good intentions always in such a way that the main discomfort experienced by those in whose name these plans seem to be realized.

For those who share the illusions about the effectiveness of the fight against terrorism and corruption with the help of "unexpected" reforms, I want to tell you just one juicy figure. In October, statistics were published on the financial results of the banking industry in India for the last quarter. It turned out that in September the volume of bank deposits of the population unexpectedly increased by 80 billion dollars - an absolute record in the history of statistics. A lot or a little can be judged by this comparison: the amount that Indians deposited in bank accounts in one month, 20 years ago, was the entire set of private deposits in the country.

Of course, I understand that this is pure coincidence, but it would still be funny to find out who these clairvoyant citizens who managed to get rid of “dangerous” cash so successfully a month before the “unexpected” reforms.