Black money is in foreign banks, properties: AIBEA

The withdrawal of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes from circulation will not help in fighting black money as it is stashed away in foreign banks, foreign currency, gold or in the form of other assets, a top leader of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) said.

"Everyone knows that black money is mostly in foreign currency, in foreign banks, in gold or in properties and less in cash. Hence, this steps alone is not going to help in unearthing black money," AIBEA's General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam said late on Tuesday.

"Secondly, the problem of fake notes is also not going to be contained by this measure. So long as we cannot check the root cause of fake notes, new sets of fake notes will come into circulation," he added in a statement.

According to him, there are about 85,000 bank branches of commercial banks and about another 100,000 branches of co-operative banks.

"There are also about 102,000 ATMs (automatic teller machines) across the country. Unless RBI can supply the new notes to the banks branches and ATMs, which is not possible within the next 24/48 hours by any stretch of imagination, common people are going to suffer more since Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes have become very common in usage by everyone," Venkatachalam added.

On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi caught the nation by surprise when he announced the cancellation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes as legal tender.

The announcement immediately sparked panic nationwide and there was a huge rush at ATMs to withdraw 100 rupee notes.

--IANS

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