City touts go unchecked in currency exchange mela

They exchange old currencies for a price. A few days ago, Prakash, a marketing professional from Ayanambakkam received a phone call from a real estate broker and a former acquaintance who promised to have all his black money changed to ‘white’ for a 20 per cent commission. “Initially, I was reluctant to believe him, but when I agreed to have some of my savings exchanged, I was shocked to find crisp Rs. 2,000 currency notes in bundles brought in a car. I could verify the new notes before actually exchanging them,” he said. 

“In some areas, the commission is as low as 15 per cent whereas it is even around 50 per cent in business districts where black money circulation is more prevalent,” says Viswanathan, an auditor from RA Puram. He claims that the entire drive after black money could turn out to be a farce unless the government and Income Tax department clamp down on these touts who are hand-in-glove with bank officials. “Obviously, there is a grand collusion between bank officials, who are in possession of newly issued currency notes in large numbers, and these touts. Instead of focussing on hardworking businessmen and small-time traders, who try to save a little amount of money in cash for various reasons, the I-T sleuths should actually go after these dubious bank officials,” he said.  He pointed out that while several of his clients were willing to opt for this illegal exchange, he had been restraining them as the tax suffered by the unaccounted money could actually be cheaper in some cases. Speaking to this newspaper, a senior official of the Investigation Wing of the Income Tax department admitted that they received suggestions from their head office in New Delhi to carry out raids against bank officials.  

“However, following a lot of deliberation, the department dropped the idea as bank officials are government servants too,” he said.  When this reporter contacted a top police officer of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for his reaction, he declined to comment.