Apropos the report: My job is done, it is fun: Anil Bokil (November 22), the maverick pseudo-economist is prevaricating. The report states that members of the ArthaKranti Pratishtan rejoiced when legal tender status of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes was withdrawn by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The report also states that Bokil and his group claimed credit for banning of high-value notes, as they had met the Prime Minister several times.
Now in an interview with another newspaper, Bokil has distanced himself from the demonetisation drive by the government stating that this is not what the Pratishtan had proposed. Bokil has also criticised flawed implementation of demonetisation and says that the government has lost the transition plot completely. However, the entire theory propagated the ArthaKranti Pratishtan is half-baked and it proposes over-simplified and miracle remedies to resolve complex economic issues. Implementing such proposals would be a recipe for economic disaster, chaos and anarchy. The Banking Transaction Tax (BTT) proposed by ArthaKranti is the crudest form of regressive and inequitable taxation, which simply refuses to recognise and differentiate between nature and purpose of various types of transactions. For example, if one percent flat transaction tax is levied on securities trading, the entire stock market would collapse.
Due to the advent of digital technology, use of currency notes as a medium of exchange and storage of wealth in physical form may reduce gradually. Over a period of time, Indians may change their behavioural pattern, shed their preference for cash and shift to digital transactions. The taxation system may also undergo unforeseen, innovative transformation. But, this has to be an organic process. Forced changes are bound cause pain and hardships to the common man, as it is witnessed during the course of current demonetisation.
Pramod Patil, Nashik
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