Planeloads of Cash Seek to Turn India’s Black Money White
- Bills by the crateload are transported by planes, trains, cars
- Attempt to clean up black economy leads to even more evasion
Rogoff: India's Modi Takes 'Very Radical' Cash Move
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As Indians struggle with the chaos caused by last month’s sudden banning of their 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, money-laundering networks are spreading across the country, seizing on a new market in helping people turn their cash hoards into legal tender.
While people have until year-end to deposit old notes in their bank accounts, the government has said it will scrutinize large cash deposits and money with undeclared origins -- and will tax or penalize depositors. That’s created a scramble for ways to turn so-called black money, the local term for cash that has evaded taxation, into white.