I am talking about the office of RBI Governor and not any individual in that chair in particular at any time.
A news
item came and went without being commented. This comment of mine is truly
dated, nearly a year after the news!
It
said that from February 16, 2021 (the February 15-16 intervening midnight, to
be sure), payment at toll plazas could be through FASTag only. But, if you
insisted on cash payment, your toll charge gets doubled!
Convenience of electronic payment has a positive premium of 100% over cash payment. My hand, faster than any pick-pocket’s hand could have done, went to my left back pocket where I carry my wallet!
Every
currency note in my wallet, and I mean everyone of them, carried an IOU from
the Governor, RBI.
“I
PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER A SUM OF … RUPEES”
Yes,
in capitals and bold. To add to the solemnity of the IOU, we have Mahatma
Gandhi looking in the direction of the promise on the currency!
Now,
if indeed a vehicle passed a toll plaza (any one on the national road network) between
February 16th, 2021 and today, and the user coughed up twice the
toll charge in currency notes, the RBI Governor is guilty of having gone back on
his promise to him/her/them/it (goods!).
You
do not expect that from a high-level government functionary, do you?
But,
that is exactly what this is. The RBI Governor told me that the note I had in
my hand carries the value of its denomination, say Rs. 100/-. At this toll
gate, I needed to pay two currency notes of Rs. 100/- to be waved off from the
toll plaza.
This
is highway robbery!
PIL,
anyone?
Raghuram
Ekambaram
P.S.
I know the powers that be would have noted this and taken some corrective
action, like an amendment to the RBI Governor’s promise. Government is there
only to break its promise!
On a
dry day, I thought this might not be a bad way to engage my readers.
6 comments:
The idea behind this is only reduce waiting time in the toll plaza. cash transaction takes a long time. fast tag transaction just takes a few seconds. This has reduced the length of the queues in the toll plaza.
They were having only one counter for cash payments and rest counters were all fast tags.
The only purpose of a government is extortion of citizens, isn't it? Highway or janpath...
Hello Unknown,
But, the news item said that if you paid by cash, your charges double. That is the point I was trying to make.
Whether this double jeopardy is still on, I don't know.
Thanks for your input and I agree with what you say, about transaction duration.
Regards,
Raghuram Ekambaram
Thanks Matheikal.
Purpose? Hobby is perhaps a better word ... The citizen must also take some blame for it.
To be honest, I had been bothered by what I wrote for the past nearly one year; I still do not know whether what has been done by the government is legal. How can a promissory note lose value against another payment system? Why hasn't this point been tagged by civil society organizations?
Raghuram Ekambaram
They are having this rule to discourage payment by cash. What you say is theoretically correct. In many USA Toll booths there is no counter al all. The money is taken from a device that you have in your car and you have to recharge it by paying online. By this the traffic does not stop and is smooth.
Thank you Mr. Subramanian ...
But, is it the best way? I am not sure.
Raghuram Ekambaram
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