New Delhi: The Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine, Steve Forbes has criticised Indian government’s move of demonetization. He referred to the govt and said ‘what they have done to the money is ‘sickening and immoral’.
Forbes wrote an article about the government’s decision and called it a ‘massive theft of people’s property’. He called the Indian bureaucracy to be ‘notorious’ for corruption, red tape and lethargy. He has given an overview on how the demonetization move was carried out by the Indian government; about the cash crunch, ATM queues, and the increase in governmental control over lives, reports Indian Express.
Forbes also compared this decision to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s infamous sterilisation program in the 1970’s, calling it Nazi-like eugenics. He wrote: “Not since India’s short-lived forced-sterilization program in the 1970s–this bout of Nazi-like eugenics was instituted to deal with the country’s “overpopulation”–has the government engaged in something so immoral.”
Forbes criticised most of the narratives which the government has been using to support the demonetization move. He wrote how did the businesses close and he mentioned how companies could not pay their employees.
Forbes also condemned the excessive rules and taxes imposed by the Indian government, which he says is the reason of the informal operation of a cash-based economy. On the issue of terrorism, Forbes said that just a currency change cannot stop terrorists from committing evil acts of terror.
On the issue of digitisation, he said that it will happen in a free market one way or the other, but it needs time. Forbes suggested that India should get rid of such a complex tax system, which is the main reason for tax evasion. Forbes suggestion for India is, “…slash income and business tax rates and simplify the whole tax structure; make the rupee as powerful as the Swiss franc; hack away at regulations…”