“India is moving towards a currency-less economy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has fired the first salvo in the right direction to attain this goal aimed at strengthening our economy. Every Indian should welcome the withdrawal and demonitisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, taking it a historic initiative to fight black money, terrorism and corruption,” says Fr. Abraham Mulamoottil, author of E-rupee to reinvent India .
Fr. Mulamoottil was responding to the Union government’s decision to scrap the currencies of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 denomination.
“In the Indian context of terrorists and usurpers who attempt to destabilise the government and society, their power based on hard cash, can be curbed to a large extent with electronic money transactions or e-rupee,” he told The Hindu.
Already on
Electronic money was intangible as it was not held in any physical form.
He said the transition from fiduciary and scriptural money to e-money had already begun through electronic payment systems, credit cards, debit cards, smart vouchers, and so on.
Fr. Mulamoottil said it was high time that democratically elected governments and people’s representatives rose up to the expectations of the people who had elected them. Bringing an end to corruption and strengthening the country’s economy through innovative and foolproof means in the national interests should be their prime concern, he said.
He said the role of physical currency was diminishing in most of the developed countries.
He mooted introduction of ‘e-rupee’ to promote a ‘currency-less’ society as it could be an effective tool to curb the black money menace and corruption.
Fr. Mulamoottil said that the everyday cash transactions of people such as vegetable, fish and milk vendors, daily subscription bills, and so on could be organised through e-rupee.
Safe gateways
However, the e-rupee proposed by Fr. Mulamoottil required efficient, secure, authorised and convenient gateways for foolproof fund transfers, payment of everyday utility bills, grocery bills, and so on.
Studies conducted by various national institutes had pegged the size of black money in the country at nearly 30 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, he said.
