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Comment by nitinreddy88 | Hacker News Reader

The article fails to mention few points.

The govt pushed everyone to create an account in any bank with any govt id card. This account operates/comes at free cost if you are operating under 50k rupees per year. This has been asked for almost 2yrs and public made aware of it. They clearly advertised that any govt benefits or subsidy will come through bank account only and its made mandatory for benefitting.

Now if those people are blaming govt for banning those notes, i find it funny.

If they are business people who are trading in lakhs, they must file Income Tax which in turn require bank account

If they are poor people who earns less than 1 lakh, i dont find a reason why they cant directly go to bank account and exchange money in next 1 month.

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"If they are poor people who earns less than 1 lakh, i dont find a reason why they cant directly go to bank account and exchange money in next 1 month."

Perhaps because they can't wait a month before their next meal or fuel for their scooters or for household expenses?

"Now if those people are blaming govt for banning those notes, i find it funny."

I find it funny that some people find it funny that 85% of the currency bills in circulation are invalidated overnight. Maybe it's funny if all diesel vehicles are banned overnight because they pollute a lot? Or if mobile phones are banned overnight since they are used by terrorists?

You mean to say people living meal to meal have all 500s and 1000s ? How else to push for cashless economy even after 2yrs plea to operate bank a/cs ? The only reason traders deal cash is to underreport income and avoid taxes. If villagers use mobiles today, they will use plastic cards tomorrow. Wearing helmets, condoms, filing IT returns, are all necessities. Ignorance not an excuse.

> Ignorance not an excuse.

Wow. Really?

Tell that to the millions of illiterate/semi-literate, lower-class people across the length and breadth of the country who are suffering right now. But wait - you don't need to. Modi already did.

This is not just affecting people without bank accounts. ATMs are unapproachable even now because of the insane queues. Some places require you to pay merchant charges for using credit cards. Transactions < 100 Rs cannot be paid for with credit cards. Some of us are better off because of credit cards, paytm etc, but I think most people are struggling.

Why make a service mandatory through law? By doing this, the government is effectively securing the banks' business.

You are absolutely right, it succeeds in making the banking facilities a mandatory step to any sort of financial transaction that can be tracked and overlooked by the government. It sucks coz the banking sector is still quite backwards in many ways but everyone sees the good intention

Isn't vehicle insurance or medicare similarly securing respective businesses? Remember, India is a welfare state and it can mandate laws for greater good.

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