Digitalisation of Currency will Revolutionise the Money Circulation
The biggest announcement that has been made in this year’s budget is that of the introduction of digital currency. It will, without doubt, revolutionise and transform the transaction of money sooner than we think. Evasion of taxes will become a thing of the past, but the biggest advantage of this currency will be savings in the printing cost of the currency notes. Year after year a very large number of notes become useless due to wear and tear. Counterfeit currency notes have also caused huge damage to the economy. So by adopting blockchain technology, there cannot be any threat of counterfeit currency because nothing can be tampered with in this method. People adopt many tactics to get torn notes into circulation. One could see long queues outside some banks to change the torn and soiled notes. Some people also make a quick business by exchanging the old notes with new ones.
Tax evaders normally keep huge amounts of currency notes, which is also known as black money. But when all transactions are made through digital currency, every Rupee will stand accounted for. The ordinary man will not have to worry at all, but those who indulge in the black money business will have to spend sleepless nights. This will be another gain for the country. One can say that when a large number of people of our country, who have no access or knowledge of handling the transactions through digital technology will be disadvantaged. But there is no truth in it. Any technology takes very little time to be imbibed by the common folk. When electricity was invented, many people were even afraid of going near the switch points or plugs. Very lately, when mobile phones were introduced, it was unthinkable of an illiterate person to use them but now there is hardly anybody even in remote areas, who does not use mobile phones.
Think of those days when there were no currency notes. One had to make transactions only through coins, which included silver and gold as well. It was very difficult to carry or protect them from thieves and robbers. So, when currency notes were
introduced, they provided a lot of relief, particularly to businesspersons. Then came another relief of money orders for sending money from one place to another and one person to another. Cheques and drafts came much later but this facility could be used only by those who were privileged to have bank accounts. The average time in getting the cheques encashed used to be from a week in the same town to nearly a month in other cities or towns.
When we were students in the university, we had to anxiously look towards the postmen to deliver the money order and they invariably used to make some money from the recipient in the name of Baksheesh. In rural areas, the postmen used to take Rs five to ten for every hundred Rs from a recipient of the money order. Some of the postmen used to make more money through this illegal gratification than their salaries.
Now even before the introduction of digital currency, one can transfer money from one place to other through Apps like UPI and Payphone in a jiffy without any hassle. The only thing that is required is that one should have a cell phone connected to the internet and a bank account. We can only imagine fathoming the economic and technological backwardness that till a few years ago more than 30 crore citizens of the country did not have any access to the bank facility. So, when the Prime Minister vigorously campaigned for having bank accounts by everybody with zero balance, there were many cynical who used to laugh at it. But today we can see the benefits of a direct bank transfer scheme for the disbursement of subsidies and other monetary benefits to kisans etc.
This is the time to welcome the introduction of digital currency. This will not only completely transform the system of money circulation but will help stem corruption.