A Massive Theft Of People’s Property: Steve Forbes’ Take On India’s Cash Curb
In a strongly-worded critique of the Indian government’s decision to withdraw high-denomination bank notes from circulation, Steve Forbes, the chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, called the exercise “sickening and immoral”.
In the opinion piece, that will appear in a print edition of the magazine on January 24, 2017 but is available online, Forbes said this “unprecedented” and “awful” act will significantly damage the country’s economy and hurt millions of its poor citizens.
What India has done is commit a massive theft of people’s property without even the pretence of due process – a shocking move for a democratically elected government...Not surprisingly, the government is downplaying the fact that this move will give India a onetime windfall of perhaps tens of billions of dollars.Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Media
Besides, the government’s decision to not print a sufficient amount of new bank notes in preparation so as to to keep its plans under wraps has only intensified the difficulties faced by citizens, Forbes added. This has resulted in workers “leaving the cities to go back to their villages” while “countless companies are having difficulty meeting payroll”.
Forbes, a renown economic forecaster, went on to compare Modi’s cashless economy drive to that of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's infamous sterilisation drive.
“Not since India's short-lived forced-sterilisation program in the 1970s – this bout of Nazi-like eugenics was instituted to deal with the country's ‘overpopulation’ – has the government engaged in something so immoral,” he wrote.
Forbes also condemned the excessive rules and taxes imposed by the Indian government, which he said is the reason India’s economy is mostly based on cash, much of which operates informally.
Instead, the way to curb tax evasion would be to get rid of a complex tax system, which is the main reason for tax evasion, he pointed out.
...the best cure for tax evasion is a flat tax or, at the least, a simple, low-rate tax system that renders tax evasion hardly worth the effort. Make it easy to do business legally and most people will do just that.Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Media
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