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India Scraps Existing 500 and 1,000 Rupee Banknotes to Fight Corruption

posted by martyb on Thursday November 10 2016, @01:18AM   
from the trade-'em-while-you-can dept.

takyon writes:

All existing 500 and 1,000 Indian rupee banknotes will be unusable starting on November 11th, and worthless on New Year's Eve:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that the existing 500 and 1,000 rupee banknotes will be withdrawn from the financial system overnight. The surprise move is part of a crackdown on corruption and illegal cash holdings, he said in a nationwide address on television. "Black money and corruption are the biggest obstacles in eradicating poverty," he said.

New 500 and 2,000 rupee denomination notes will be issued to replace them. The move is designed to lock out money that is unaccounted for and may have been acquired corruptly, or be being withheld from the tax authorities. It is seen as the boldest move by any Indian government to clampdown on tax evaders.

People will have until December 30th to exchange the notes at banks.

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Original Submission

• Re:Oldest trick in the book Re:Oldest trick in the book (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @05:03PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10 2016, @05:03PM (#425189)

  I've also noticed that once the new $100's came out, the old bills started becoming scarce. I think the Federal Reserve is withdrawing and shredding the old ones as they receive them, and replacing them with the new ones. My housemate pays the rent in cash and I almost always receive new bills.

  Yes, they are doing this. It's no secret, either; they outright say they do. It's not for any nefarious reason, either.

  Money just wears out, and then gets replaced with new money. [federalreserve.gov] You don't see many old bills for the same reason you don't see many 1960s cars.

  Much like that car analogy, you'll only see old bills in places where money can't circulate well. In Cuba you see lots of vintage cars, and in the various vaults of foreign countries you'll see lots of old bills.

  Incidentally, this is one of the reasons the government periodically makes pushes to move society to dollar coins... coins last substantially longer than paper currency does, and thus it is substantially cheaper to make and maintain them than to print and reprint all that money over and over.

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• Re:Oldest trick in the book (Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:24PM

  by Arik (4543) on Thursday November 10 2016, @09:24PM (#425321) Journal

  "Incidentally, this is one of the reasons the government periodically makes pushes to move society to dollar coins... coins last substantially longer than paper currency does, and thus it is substantially cheaper to make and maintain them than to print and reprint all that money over and over."
  
  To move *back* to coins, really. Our original currency was the spanish silver dollar. Worth about $25 today.
  
  

  --
  If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?

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