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If criminals didn't turn in the cash, then it evaporated, which is just as good. No?

No. Just 1% of the cash evaporated, as opposed to 33% as Modi predicted, and majority of that was probably just due to loss or unlucky circumstance.

For such a disruptive event, that's pathetic.

The only winner was the banking system, who saw one of their major competitors (cash), hobbled. Modi now seems to be saying that this was the point all along.

Direct evaporation is only one part of this. You need to consider the overhead as people tried to get money into the banking system without alerting the government.

AKA, If you started with X money hidden then you don't get to keep 100% of that money if you hand it to other people to deposit.

On top of that people where caught, so actual black money disappearing was much greater than 1%.

Overhead didn't reduce black money, it just changed hands. From merchants to bankers and launderers.

If you hand money being saved to several people, those Y people are going to spend the money they just got. Thus, moving it into the taxed economy.

Just because cash came back into the system doesn't mean anything. The real troubles for those avoiding income tax begins now as the govt tries to go after those who replaced more cash than their declared income.

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