Oh! The Irony...How Traditional Banking Is Taking Us For a Ride in India!
Ever since I've joined Steemit, the anarchist in me is growing! Government of India is busy trying to encourage a cashless economy at the expense of the unbanked and those who have poor access to banking in general. Today I woke up to the news of our Indian banks coming to a consensus of implementing new set of charges for services that were earlier rendered free of cost.
This move is unbelievably absurd as the banks will now charge 18% GST on basic services such as withdrawals, deposits, net banking, KYC, change of address etc. This move solidifies my opinion that traditional banking and the government are a bunch of thugs in power trying to profit at our expense.
There's a reason for my strong opinion-which would be considered quite unpopular in my country owing to the majority that blindly follow the government. A large portion of Indian economy is rural economy with a major portion of the economy consisting of people in the lower-to-middle income category.
Can you imagine students withdrawing INR 100 ($1.57) and paying 10% of it as fees to the bank! It suddenly feels like the incredible Bitcoin and it's ever increasing exorbitant fees!
Oh! The Irony...
The great government of India on one hand paints a rosy picture of a digital India where people have greater access to online banking and on the other allows the private and nationalised banks of the country to rip-off hard working citizens who are already burdened by ever increasing direct and in-direct taxes as well as rising inflation and lower interest rates on fixed deposits-which the government is directly responsible for!
It saddens me that my country isn't rising up against such atrocities. The irony is in the fact that our government wants to warn us against use of cryptocurrencies with some stating they are not real money. The govt and these banks want to show us a number in our online banking accounts and fewer pieces of paper in our wallet. How do they expect the economy to function or support them in their endeavours when they seem to forgetting how this affects the larger population.
The move is aimed at encouraging paperless transactions but they want to charge us for everything. Imagine the plight of millions of Indians who are facing difficulties due to these constant, almost-lunatic changes in policy. Wait, they did it earlier with demonetisation and didn't give a damn about the population in general. So this isn't shocking after all!
I understand that the banks have costs to cover and they are in the business of making a profit as anyone else. It would've been great if the masses had a choice between a traditional bank and something more radical such as a cryptocurrency based solution that was cheap to use. Then these banks would have no other recourse than to get competitive and offer lower fees and improve services.
Cryptocurrencies couldn't have been invented any sooner and I can't wait to see some major disruptions in the banking sector from a crypto and blockchain revolution. I hope the next few years will bring a mass adoption and revolution that we need, beyond the pumps and dumps that we've witnessed so far!
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The corrupt political establishment and greedy banksters are just digging their own graves at this point. They still haven't seen the writing on the wall. Their hubris and arrogance is blinding them to what is currently taking place!
These kind of poorly-conceived fee hikes are going to drive even more people into the growing, global cryptocurrency-based economy.
We don't need Banks now with such amount of fees...They are charging fees for service that can be automated in blockchain......Imagine for a moment that you did not have a bank account. No debit or credit card, no access to an ATM, just a mobile with crypto-currency wallet and every merchant accepting crypto payments, which you can pay just by scanning the barcode....Then, do we really need a bank? I think now the focus should be to convince merchants to accept crypto-currency....
It's true. It is an inevitable future in my opinion. The only problems with things going in that directions are things that are going to improve and get better over time. It is too expensive for merchants to keep paying their credit card fees when they could be transacting for fractions of a penny with crypto.
When the power goes out, so does blockchain and every other electronic commerce. Until the power grid is guaranteed 100%, there will all ways be cash in my pocket.
or gold or silver! :)
I believe they are trying to rip off before crypto market deepens its roots in India. Baad mei kuch nahi milega. 😂 😂 😂
Lol! For sure man! The govt and the banks are hand in glove! :D
One of the reasons government is issuing statements against crypto is fear. The fear of people giving up on paper currency and adopting crypto which would be tantamount to economic depression. Or failure.
Second, this analogy of helping the poor and at the same time allowing bank to raise charges reminds me of what's happening in my home state (himachal)
The newly elected govt said that (in a press statement) we need to curb our expenses. Officers and employees should devise new ways to reduce consumption of all sorts.
In the evening the cabinet of ministers unanimously approved buying new Innovas for all the elected MLAs.
What stupidity. And what chicanery.
there is a reason why India lagged behind implementing industrial revolution and internet evolution. I think most of the government employees are not visionaries they just know facts and figures thats it. They all know that bank will fight for their survival in future because of increasing competition in mobile technology and low charges but instead of implementing new technologies like Blockchain into the system what they come up is with higher prices.
Since I started getting into cryptocurrencies I feel Indian policy makers does the shittiest job in the world, their talks about startup India and forming new companies are all rubbish. I mean how could you progress when you are so lazy in thinking about emerging technologies. In 6-7 months a lot technologies will emerge like steemit ... we could see next chrome (brave browser ) next facebook (tron/ robin8 ) but what Indians will do, they all will go and work in these companies get the salaries and push up in their arse.
I understand so well what your talking about and your frustration. Here in my country, Bulgaria is the same. For instance banks have announced that till the end of this year they will raise the interest rate on mortgage loans which is anyway very high strating from almost 10%. And also being afraid of the crypto revolution some banks have banned all transactions from crypto exchange platforms.
We don't want our money to decrease in value over time... #BankFreeIndia #BankFreeWorld... :P
You have a complete leader spirit firepower👍
Jan Ka Dhan Khao Yojna:)
very good article as usual. thanks for keeping us informed!