Demonetisation: it all started in 2014

The bold move of demonetisation, taken by our great PM Narendra Modi is having mixed reaction from all over India. While some people are saying that it is causing chaos for the common man and will increase the bribe and black money, while most of the people are supporting this historic decision. But it will remain as one of the most effective move against black money in India for many ages. Some of the politicians, who have collected and saved a gigantic amount of black money in cash are coming on the camera and making baseless reasons to remove this ban. Some of the politicians are saying that our PM could have given ample amount of time and should have announced this step a bit earlier. It’s like saying, you should have informed the thief before catching them, so that they could have got time to escape.

But this decision was not made in a month or two, it took 2 years for finally implementing this decision. We can see the roots of this decision back in the year 2014, when the government added issuing of adhar card in their list of priorities and then took further strong steps to finally reach at the present stage. This step involved three major things, an identity proof, a bank account and statement of black money and our government took care of these things, one by one in a well structured manner. So let’s see how demonetisation was implemented with step by step process in these two years.

An identity proof for everyone

It all started in the month of June, 2014, when the cabinet committee on Adhar was disbanded. Adhar card was not a new concept, it was started in the year 2010 but its implementation was a failure. The new government of BJP restructured the system of issuing Adhar to cover everyone in India and PM Narednra Modi set deadline for universal enrollment till December 2015 and with the new structure and process of Adhar card issuing, the new government was able to increase the number of people with Adhar card from 50 crore to 107 crore in just two years. PM Narendra Modi knew that many people in India are not having an identity proof and after demonetisation, it would become difficult for common people to exchange money without identity and that’s why firstly he issued an identity proof for everyone. The effort for issuing adhar card for everyone was also a part of PM Nardenrda Modi’s next step, which was Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojna. While Adhar card has many other uses and benefits for people and country, but it was also a part of the big step taken on 8th November, 2016.

Bank Account for everyone

Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojna, which was announced by PM Narendra Modi on his first independence day speech on 15^th August 2015 was a big part of demonetisation. This new scheme was heavily dependent on Adhar card as an Adhar card was enough to open a bank account under this scheme with zero balance. As per the current rule of demonetisation, a bank account for everyone was very much necessary to deposit the old currency notes of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 and for withdrawal also and, at that time (August, 2015) only 58 percent of the Indian households were having access to bank services. On the first day of this scheme, 1.5 crore bank accounts were opened and the first week performance of this scheme was entered into the Guinness book of world records for the most number of bank accounts opened in a week. And till June, 2016, 22 crore accounts were opened and even after the allowance of opening an account at zero balance, more than Rs.384.11 billion was deposited in all the accounts. Now most of the people were having an identity proof and a bank account, so the next step was declaration of black money.

Last Chance for declaring black money

After equipping most of the citizens of India with identity proof and bank account, now it was time to give everyone a last chance to declare their income. This was done by PM Narendra Modi under his Income Declaration scheme which he announced 1 June 2016.  Under this scheme, people were allowed to declare their undisclosed income and pay tax, surcharges and penalty according to the rule. The best part of this scheme was the privacy of the people who declared their income. The Government didn’t ask about the details of the income like where it came from, how long you have been keeping such income and the identity of the person declaring their income was also kept secret. One of the key points to notice in the speech of PM Narendra Modi regarding the Income Declaration scheme in “Man ki Baat” was his warning of the difficulties which people with black money are going to face if they don’t declare their income before 30^th September. At that time, many people ignored this warning and are now burning their money or discarding it in the rivers. But this scheme was also a huge success for our government as $10 billion of black money was declared under this scheme.

Only having a good strategy doesn’t make a plan successful but it requires proper implementation also and PM Narendra Modi did it with perfection. After implementing every step towards Demonetisation, now it was time for the big plan which was taken on the evening of 8^th November and now it’s our responsibility to give support to this plan and make it successful. If you think that our country will improve while the government spoon-feeds you, then you were in big misconception. A country becomes great with the mutual efforts of citizens and government. Be a part of this great change and watch India becoming corruption less and an ideal country for everyone.