Use cheques, cards to check black money, says Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today made a case for encouraging the use of cheques and "plastic currency" to tackle the generation of black money.

"As the economy grows, there is a roadmap, and the roadmap is more and more people start discarding the use of currency and switch over to either cheques or plastic currency," he said.

Speaking at the Foundation Day celebrations of Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL) here, Jaitley said that in a developed country like the US or the UK, maximum value of a currency is  $100 and 50 pounds.

"One of the objectives is to dis-incentivise the use of currency and incentivise the use of plastic currency or any other negotiable instrument which is available.

That is the eventual target," he said, adding that the government is taking steps to reduce incidence of high value cash transaction.

"Some steps have also been announced which make use of cash little difficult," he said, adding that the move would check use of unaccounted money.

In the Budget 2015-16, Jaitley has announced steps to deal with the menace of black money by dis-incentivising cash dealings in real estate and other such transactions.

The government has also taken steps to incentivise the use of credit and debit cards and putting a cap on cash transactions.

Quoting PAN has been made mandatory for all sale and purchase of over Rs 1 lakh.

He also proposed to amend the Income-Tax Act to prohibit "acceptance or payment" of an advance of Rs 20,000 or more in cash for purchase of immovable property.

Jaitley lauded the progress made by SPMCIL in the production of bank notes and coins and the steps taken to modernise the units.

SPMCIL is a 'Miniratna' central public enterprise and this is the fourth year in succession when the company has paid 20 per cent dividend.

It printed a record 8,018 million pieces of bank notes and produced 7,650 million coins.

The company's turnover now stands at Rs Rs 3,798 crore (Rs 37.98 billion). SPMCIL produces bank notes, coins, medals and medallions, weights & measures as well as various security products like passports, travel documents, non-judicial stamp papers, postal stationery.