Hello all, to the teachers and students present, I would wish to take this opportunity to address you with my speech on the topic, Cashless India.
Monetary transactions are very common activities in which almost every person engages in every day. The use of currency in the form of notes and coins has been the most common way of carrying out monetary transactions. The Indian government, however, through its policy makers have attempted to adopt a cashless economy by reducing the cash in circulation in the Indian economy. The use of digital means of handling money has been seen as a better alternative and as a remedy to inconveniences that go with the use of cash in transactions between persons. The use of for instance banking cards, mobile wallets and USSD modes of transactions between persons has been advocated for.
Much of the cash transactions have been going unrecorded thereby adversely affecting economies of the world. Carrying bulk of notes and coins has also been inconvenient and has subjected the same to loss. Moreover, the coins and notes have frequently been faked bringing the economies of the world down. This would only be avoided by having cashless transactions as proposed by the Indian government. Through unrecorded cash transactions still, many people have evaded payment of taxes thereby decreasing government revenue. This has resulted to overtaxing of the individuals and entities having no capacity to evade the taxes. If cashless economy was to be effected, tax evasion would be impossible and this would subsequently result to uniformity in taxing and hence lower tax rates.
The adoption of this mode of carrying out transactions would, however, be unrealistic to Indians carrying out transactions involving small amounts of money. It would also not favor Indians residing in marginalized areas since it calls for high levels of technological advancements. India, having a large population would, therefore, face numerous challenges in having this kind of economy incorporated into their country. The merits of this mode of transaction seemingly outweigh the challenges. It, therefore, is, if implemented not a bad idea to the Indian economy.
I wish to thank all of you for listening to my speech.