Levy tax, allow exchange

It is quite possible that there are 25% genuine and 75% doubtful/benami holders of scrapped notes

It is wrong on the part of the government to refuse to open a window for exchanging banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. The government has said in its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court that such a move would defeat the objective of demonetisation and elimination of black money and that the income tax department would have great difficulty in distinguishing genuine cases from numerous bogus ones.

It is apparent from the affidavit that the government is not ready to acknowledge or honour the commitment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made in his address to the nation on November 8, 2016. He said scrapped notes could be exchanged till March 31, 2017.

It is also apparent that the government has failed to appreciate the basic concept of jurisprudence — that it is better that 10 culprits go free but no innocent is punished. It is quite possible that there are 25 per cent genuine and 75 per cent doubtful/benami holders of scrapped notes. Why punish the 25 per cent? 

Instead of denying an opportunity to the public, the government could consider converting the black money into white, by charging/levying 10-30 per cent tax on the total amount of scrapped notes deposited. This suggestion has nothing to do with last year’s black money disclosure schemes.

R G Nakhate   Mumbai

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