INDIA INSTITUTES DECIMAL COINAGE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28268, 4 May 1957, Page 6

INDIA INSTITUTES DECIMAL COINAGE

[From JOHN JOHNSON]

India is nothing if not progressive. With the starting of her financial year, during the last week, she has put into action the innovation of decimal coinage. And a lot of things are happening. This is really the beginning of a wider scheme embracing all the weights and measures. It has been well publicised for some months. The rupee, worth roughly Is 6d, remains the basic unit with notes of 5, 10, 100, etc., and the quarter rupee and half rupee coins also remain worth 4 and 8 annas in the old coinage, but now represent 25 and 50 naye paise. But instead of having annas, half annas and pice for smaller amounts, there will now be four new coins of 1,2, 5 and 10 naye paise, each worth so many hundredths of a rupee. This will obviously make for easier bookkeeping and calculations. The scheme was launched on April 1 and the critics did not fail to draw attention to the auspiciousness -of the day. But there was one surprise. It had been assumed that the man in the street, often illiterate, would not be able to handle a conversion table. He seems, however, by all accounts, to be managing it very well— a practical necessity often awakens unsuspected skill and intelligence. Conversion facilities were provided at the Reserve Bank offices, branches of the State Bank of India and other agency banks and treasuries. Branches of th*» pest office were also Supplied with stocks of the new currency Special Table A special table was prepared and circulated in which certain amounts were arbitrarily rounded off, by ignoring fractions of half naye paise and below, and treating amounts of more than a half naye paise as one NP. A new issue of postage stamps, in 11 denominations, from 2 N.P. to 75 N.P., were also issued. Each has a map of India, and they are lovely stamps with a different colour for each value. There are also new official stamps. In an attempt to avoid difficult situations, it was decided, however, to continue the use of the old coinage as well as introduce the new. There are 360,000,000 people in India, and between them they handle a lot of small coins, as they are a trading people, and the number of retail “shops” is just legion. It is too early yet to sum up the results; but the public seem to have rushed the new coinage, are often hoarding it, and the stocks are insufficient in many places. On leaving Cochin today I could get naye paise from noone. Indians love to talk and argue, and at our local post office there has been much delay and discussion which is, I imagine, typical of most of India. A man would ask for a nine pice postcard, now costing five naye paise, tender one anna, and worry that he was only given one N.P. in change. Small coins count in India.

At the time the poor postal clerk behind the counter, or his assistant who did the sums, was wondering if he had got it out right. I wanted a set of the new stamps whose total value I had not troubled to calculate, and offered a five-rupee note, and there was much arithmetic; and in the end I think I lost some mqney, but I had not the heart to argue it out with the poor clerk.

There has been much argument over the rounded-off prices. The commonest rate of postage in India was, for an ordinary letter. 2 annas. This works out at 12J naye pal--*, which, by the rule, is taken as 13 N.P. And there has been a great outcry at this rise of j a naye paise in post-

age. But the post office would have lost badly over a price of 12 N.P.

In Calcutta there were riots and violent scenes at a number of post offices over increases in the price of postal articles; and there were free fights and breaking of counters until the police intervened. All the post offices were then picketed. There have been delays in buses over calculations. The rates in these are now announced in naye paise, but few have the new coinage to pay with. The same thing is happening with newspapers. Poorer Classes Affected It is, of course, the poorer classes that are most affected, as they make most of their purchases with small change. They complain that shopkeepers are using the occasion to increase prices, through the rounding off process. One unofficial estimate is that the cost of living has gone up as much as 5 per cent. In Madras the Mayor has called a meeting of representative shopkeepers and consumers to get some agreement on prices of lowpriced articles. The general opinion seems to be that the Government might reduce confusion by getting in the old coins as soon as possible, instead of allowing them three years’ licence, as was intended. There seems some danger of Gresham’s well-known law operating and bad money, such as the old, driving out good. Accountants, school children who have to learn arithmetic, and bank clerks are delighted at the new coinage. The Prime Minister (Mr Nehru) tells everyone how wonderful it is. Perhaps it will not be long before the rest of the 360,000,000 people of India agree with him. One cannot but admire the courage of a Government that launches., a reform such as this. It is surely a lesson to New Zealand, which always seems so timid if anything big and far-reaching like this is suggested. But surely our system of coinage, weights, and measures is very cumbrous, unscientific, and wasteful of time and energy. Perhaps the time has come when .e should courageously follow India’s lead.