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Under the Veil of Demonetization

Apurva Chaudhry |
The corrupt are unaffected by this scheme while the poor suffer.
Demonetization

While Prime Minister Modi has asked the public to have patience for demonetization to work and flush out ‘Black Money’, no one has paid attention to the well structured money laundering that was carried out by him prior to this scheme.
Last year (June 01, 2015), RBI increased the slab for LRS "Liberalized remittance scheme" up to USD 250,000. Which means any individual from India can transfer up to Rs 2 Crore to their overseas account in a financial year.
Before Modi came to power, the LRS limit was 75,000 USD. After he became the PM on 26 May 2014, RBI Increased the LRS slab to 125,000 on July17, 2014. They also increased the slab to 250,000 USD a second time on June 01, 2015. The supposed black money that would have been caught or been rendered useless due to demonetization was given a free pass a year before, to be deposited safely in overseas accounts.

Attention of Authorised Persons is invited to the A.P.(DIR Series) Circular No. 138 dated June 3, 2014 regarding the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) for resident individuals and the existing guidelines issued under the Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000. On a review, it has been decided to make the following changes for further liberalization and rationalization on the existing guidelines.

Limit and Facilities under LRS

2. AD banks may now allow remittances by a resident individual up to USD 250,000 per financial year for any permitted current or capital account transaction or a combination of both. If an individual has already remitted any amount under the LRS, then the applicable limit for such an individual would be reduced from the present limit of USD 250,000 for the financial year by the amount already remitted. The permissible capital account transactions by an individual under LRS are: ..”
Read more here.

Due to this increase in LRS slab, there was a sudden spurt in remittance since June 2015. Approximately 4.6 billion USD (30,000 Crore rupees) has been transferred from India in last 11 months. This sudden historic spike in remittance is almost 300% higher than average remittance.
Indians have sent a record amount overseas under a facility that allows them to send money abroad either as a gift or maintenance of relatives and even investments abroad or even purchase of property without any questions asked. 

Outward overseas remittances under the Liberalized Remittances Scheme (LRS) have touched a record of $ 4.6 billion, up from $ 1.6 billion a year ago. 

An analysis of monthly trend in such remittances for the last one year shows, that there is a sudden spurt in remittances from June 2015 from a little over $100 million a month to more than $400 million a month. 
The spurt is driven by a sharp rise in outflow under 'maintenance of close relatives' and 'study abroad' heads. Together they have accounted for more than half the outflow under various heads since June 2015. There is no clear explanation for this sudden surge. 
According to sources at the Reserve Bank of India, this spurt is largely because the scope of LRS has widened to allow higher limits under the head maintenance of close relatives and study abroad under the LRS since May 2015. 
- Economictimes.indiatimes.com

Apart from strategically keeping the black money hoarders safe, Prime Minister Modi has introduced additional decisions which will protect the most corrupt institutions. The government has made an amendment in the anti-corruption act which states that all central government employees may get a ‘shield’ from prosecution.  They decided to make it mandatory for investigating agencies like CBI to take its prior approval before conducting any enquiry against them. Union minister Jitendra Singh says the amendment is being done to protect honest employees. The fallacy in this argument is that honest employees don’t need protection, the dishonest ones do. This will now protect all the corrupt politicians who otherwise would have been exposed. Another decision taken by the government is to not put the Temple money from hundis under scanner. "For temples, there is an exemption that if the money is from the donation boxes, we will not ask questions. There is no limit on that (deposits)," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told IANS. This would inevitably make temples, a money laundering hub for all corrupt people.

The end result that seems to be coming out, is that the corrupt are unaffected by this scheme while the poor suffer. Death toll has risen to 25 due to standing in lines for hours at end. While the Prime Minister romanticizes the entire situation, the common man starves on the road. Demonetization seems to have no silver lining.

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