The DayAfter NOVEMBER 16-30, 2016 ISSUE | Page 19

special of addressing this issue once and for all. “This move should improve India’s position on transparency and corruption in the global league table enabling higher capital flow into India,” said Binani. While people are busy promulgating that the step would help containing black money there are some more areas that may get hit by this step namely — terror organizations finance as they are mainly run by the black money which are mainly being stashed into the form of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denominations, push to bullion market as the move would push the industry to move towards organized sector leaving the dubba trade and other age old malpractices, liquidity to the Indian economy as people having black money will have very little option than to show their black money and pay the income tax being levied on them, scarcity of money to the political parties going to polls in coming assembly elections in 2017 etc. There are some other steps that may follow suit like — scaling down to coinage which would include up to Rs 100 means soon the government of India may think of scrapping the small denomination Indian currencies up to Rs 100 as people able to save some of their black money may switch to small denomination notes and hence the Modi government may think of blowing final punch to their war against graft. In second phase, the government may also think of cracking down on the lockers of people who think they have saved their black money by buying gold bricks pushing the bullion market to its best seller day during the November 8 and 9. The move is expected to pave way for the dream home buyers as the black money involved into the real estate sector has not allowed the residential realty prices to scale down even though they have been in overbought condition for long. Anuj Puri, Chairman & Country Head, JLL India — a leading real estate consultancy firm in India — said, “The banning of higher currency notes is a major move which will help curb unaccounted-for cash in the real estate sector. We have just witnessed a tremendous step towards increased transparency in the Indian real estate industry. The effects will be farreaching and immediate, and shake up the sector in no uncertain way.” Puri said that stricter measures against black money have for long been required to help bring about greater t ra n s p a re n c y, give the Indian real estate sector more credibility and make it more attractive for foreign investors. Black money deals are more common on the unorganized market, but this practice has, in fact, been on the decrease with greater awareness on the part of buyers. Before too long, the caricatured version of black money driving Indian real estate is no longer applicable. There may be different views on penalty on people revealing cash in bulk but to some extent it looks that the Modi has given up to the black money stashers by giving them some window to liquidate their huge cash through hospitals, railways, airports etc. There has been huge booking registered in railways after the surgical strike on the parallel economy and people shouldn’t get astonished if huge cancellation is registered post December deadline for submission of the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. Even the finance minister has been repeatedly clarifying that no penalty would be levied on people depositing small amount which is probably below the taxable slab. So, Modi is more in bringing the black money into the economy than to kill and convert those cash into trash. Feedback on:[email protected] November 16-30, 2016 The Dayafter 19