{"id":8869,"date":"2016-12-10T16:32:16","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T00:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pocketwisdominsights.com\/pwicolab\/?p=8869"},"modified":"2019-02-18T20:57:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T04:57:05","slug":"india-raids-and-confiscates-material-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pocketwisdominsights.com\/pwicolab\/leadership\/leadership-co-lab\/leadership-co-lab-blogs\/pwi-co-lab-staff\/india-raids-and-confiscates-material-wealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Cashless: India Raids \u2018Hidden\u2019 Money, Confiscates Gold & Jewelry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening Insights<\/h2>\n

Paving the way for \u2018no person left behind\u2019, Central banks are putting police power and brutality behind their move to a cashless society. Understand that gold and gold jewelry are traditional stores of value in India. Secondly, note that the banking cartel is going after this gold and jewelry because it is \u2018hidden\u2019 wealth and comparable to cash.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Pocket Wisdom Insights (PWI) invites you to explore the following Co-Lab Blog<\/strong>.<\/em>
\n This blog features parts of an influential and insightful article featured outside of the PWI\u00a0Co-Lab<\/strong><\/em>
\n by Mike \u201cMish\u201d Shedlock<\/strong> on December 7, 2016<\/span>, published by Technocracy News<\/a>.<\/em>
\n We have republished this content in respect of the author\u2019s vision, message and research.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Informational Insights<\/h2>\n

\"india-taj\"<\/p>\n

Global financial repression picks up steam, led by India. After declaring large denomination notes illegal, India now targets gold.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just gold bars or bullion. The government has raided houses, no questions asked, confiscating jewelry.<\/p>\n

For background to this article, please see my November 27 article Cash Chaos in India, 86% of Money in Circulation Withdrawn; Cash Still King in Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Large denomination means 500-rupee ($7.30) and 1,000-rupee notes ($14.60), which account for more than 85 percent of the money supply. They are no longer legal tender, effective immediately.<\/p>\n

As one might imagine, chaos ensued. And it continues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Picking up where we left off, please consider Message to Modi: Do No More Harm<\/a>\u00a0by Mihir Sharma.<\/p>\n

The chaos accompanying \u201cdemonetization\u201d hasn\u2019t eased up noticeably. It seems likely the disruption to the economy, especially in cash-centric rural India, will hit growth sharply for at least a few quarters. It\u2019s tough to say for how long and by how much; we are in uncharted territory here and guesses have varied widely. But many analysts agree with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who\u2019s predicting the new policy will knock 2 percentage points off that world-beating GDP growth rate.<\/p>\n

Demonetization was originally sold as a \u201csurgical strike on black money\u201d<\/a> \u2014 the illicit piles of cash many rich Indians have accumulated out of sight of the taxman. It\u2019s now clear the policy has been anything but surgical. Worse, uncomfortable questions are being asked about whether the complicated rules and exemptions that have accompanied demonetization have allowed black-money holders to launder most of their cash. Of late, Modi\u2019s chosen to focus<\/a> instead on demonetization as means of advancing a cashless economy.<\/p>\n

Yet the idea of a war on unaccounted-for wealth remains central to demonetization\u2019s popular appeal, which means Modi will have to find other ways to keep that narrative going. So the government has now begun to push income-tax officials to conduct raids<\/a> on those who might be concealing assets in forms other than cash, such as gold.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s already enough fear of such raids becoming common again that the government felt the need to step in to quell some of the anxiety. That didn\u2019t help much. The government \u201cclarified,\u201d<\/a> \u00a0among other things, the rules governing when tax officials could seize gold: Nothing would happen \u201cif the holding is limited to 500 grams per married woman, 250 grams per unmarried woman and 100 grams per male.\u201d It also said that there would be no limits on jewelry \u201cprovided it is acquired\u2026 from inheritance.\u201d Also, the \u201cofficer conducting [the] search has discretion to not seize [an] even higher quantity of gold jewelry.\u201d<\/p>\n

What this means, unfortunately, is that India\u2019s income tax officers have just won the lottery. During a raid, they can, on the spot, decide whether or not to confiscate a family\u2019s gold holdings. And remember, India has an enormous amount of gold \u2014 20,000 metric tons<\/a>, much of it inherited. (The rules governing simple searches are different, but few know that.) Rather than cleaning up tax administration, the government has handed tax officials more power than they\u2019ve had for decades. The rich will pay what they need to escape harassment; the rest will suffer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read entire story here\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Possibilities for Consideration<\/h2>\n

Take a moment and examine\u2026<\/h3>\n