Why Can’t Bankers be Like Lead Beggars? I want my 15 Naye Paise Monthly!

 

Why Can’t Bankers be Like Lead Beggars? I want my 15 Naye Paise Monthly!

They already are, but you would not know it. They beg for money from you and me. What else are they doing when they offer you this and that for you to park your savings with them? They would not even give a hint of the parking cost! They throw in fancy words like Mutual Funds or Fixed Deposits merely to bamboozle you.

The beggars that you come across outside of temples are, in comparison, honest. They do have a leader, the Lead Beggar who does roaring business with other beggars, exchanging coins for currency notes for a commission. And, he gives coins for your currency notes at a premium. His begging is economics sophistry of a high order! Even Shylock could not have done better.

The Lead Beggar has the inside track on news about the details of M3 parameter of Indian finance−coins are scarce in Indian economy, leading to, say the middle class people in a vegetable market offering a currency note to the vendor and the latter not returning the exact change in coins.

For example, my purchase may total up to my payables at Rs. 72- (this is a rare occasion). Then, the vendor, more often than not, would give back only Rs. 25/- citing lack of “small” change. If you accept this one time, you are on a slippery slope; you can never get any “small” change, even if it not be small. Not only that: What you bought for Rs. 72/- would, as if by magic, have a list price of Rs. 75/- the next time! The fruit seller who climbs two floors never demands Rs. 48/−, 52/−, or 67/−. For these values of money, she adds a change premium, Rs. 2/−, or Rs. 3/−. I have a theory about why this−to accommodate customers using credit/debit cards, GPay and such! Even if you wish to pay the exact cost, that cost now accommodates this, what I call the change premium!

Yet, what I learned from a short newspaper article−you may call it a fluff piece, a space filler−some time ago that bemoaned the fact that in most commercial exchanges, the buyer is always the loser, unless he has a pocketful of jingling coins.

When I was doing my undergraduate studies, the city bus fare for the three-stop hop-skip-and jump I had to make for monthly shopping was maybe seven naye paise. The conductor, standing on the footboard will keep announcing that only people with exact fare for their trip to get on board. Then, you may lose 30%! Carry a two naye paise coin, you could be in luck. He would return a five naye paise coin. You had to do addition and subtraction (with or without carryover) to travel by city bus then.

When I was doing my post-graduate studies, I was in a smaller city, though still a city. It was easier and I could do with a lighter load of coins. Now, after nearly 50 years, the situation even in a one street-light-village, nothing is valued for less than Rs. 10/- and even street vendors have GPay!

Bankers are worse than the Lead Beggar, who is upfront about it. When the bank advised me to start an SIP they did not tell me that there is a cost to this account. I have an SIP with a bank for Rs. 3,000/-, the monthly debit to my SB Acct. is Rs. 3,000/-, yet the credit to my SIP is Rs. 2,999.85 only.

I want my 15 naye paise, every month!   

Raghuram Ekambaram