The Big Problem of Small Change
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 10, 2012 -
Shortage of coins and other currency notes of smaller denominations making even the simplest tasks of buying groceries or riding bus into complicated transaction is not a new phenomenon in the history of human civilization.
There are historical records of monetary systems experiencing recurring coinage problem throughout the Middle Ages and even well into the Renaissance.
In monetary systems that had coins with at least some intrinsic value, for example those made of silver or gold, intermittent shortages of small change have always occurred on account of stockpiling giving a hard time not only to the people but also to the respective governments in trying to overcome the problem.
In China, generations of Chinese children, who have been taught to practice thrift by putting their pocket-change into piggy banks often continues their habit into adulthood, thus causing a severe shortage of coins and small-denomination notes in that country year after year.
In 2009, the economy of Argentina was almost at the brink of collapse following acute shortage of small change that even prevented factories from paying wages to its workers.
For over two centuries ago, Great Britain faced a coin shortage more severe than Argentina's - so severe that it threatened to stop British industrialization in its tracks until the private firms, which were fed up of government's inaction, started minting their own coins.
Comparing to these big economies, the problem of shortage of coins and other currency notes of smaller denominations in Manipur may appears to be less alarming.
But with small change finding it hard to come by over the last many years, the state economy has been definitely affected, although there has been no serious study on the extent of the damage caused so far.
At present, Manipur is facing the scarcity of small change like Rs 5, Rs 2 and Rs 1, both coins and notes, and the customers are being forced to buy match-boxes, toffees or chewing gums at shops, even if they do not need them, since there is no change to return at the time of buying anything.
At some places, one can see tokens made from hardboard being given to the customers with the balance amount scribble on them. Howsoever, ingenious such ideas may be, it could never be the solution to a problem that is so pervasive.
Whether one is at the oil pumps, gas booking counters, photo copier kiosks, tea shops, vegetable markets, etc, shortage of small change is felt everywhere and the customers is always the loser.
If the reason for the shortage is the failure of SBI and UBI, which are the two chest banks of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Manipur, to procure coins and currency notes of smaller denominations regularly on alleged ground of higher charges due to weight, the state government needs to step in to handle the problem instead of remaining mute spectator.
Time and again, RBI has made it emphatically clear that there is no shortage of coins and currency notes of smaller denominations in the country.
So, why the customers should be subjected to a big problem over small chance through imposition of unjustified costs or restrictions? Let's think over.
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