Small change poses a big problem

December 13: It's noon at the RBI building in south Mumbai. A long queue of haggard looking youths with wads of currency notes in their h...

December 13: It8217;s noon at the RBI building in south Mumbai. A long queue of haggard looking youths with wads of currency notes in their hands squat on the floor.

The expectant youths are waiting for their turn to receive bags of one, two and five rupee coins in exchange for paper money at the RBI8217;s coin counters. However, most of them are daily-wagers hired by the coin traders who lurk outside.When its not battling the Rupee8217;s fluctuating fortunes, the Reserve Bank of India RBI is engaged in a cat and mouse game of wits with these touts right in the hallowed portals of its head office in Mumbai.At stake is the Rs 20 lakh worth of small change that the bank dishes across its counters to the public in Mumbai every day.

Except that in most cases, the public8217; are these touts who heft away the change to be sold in the market at a premium.Gopal namea pseudonym makes a living off small change. This mobile-wielding tout buys the coins from banks and transport corporations and resells them in the open market.8220;I make a three per cent commission,8221; he grins.8220;We have no way of distinguishing between a tout and a member of the public,8221; says an RBI official.By cornering so much of the small change that8217;s in circulation, RBI officials say that these middlemen have the potential to make the onion shortage look like a bicycle accident. In fact they are the main reasons for the prevailing psychoses of a perennial coin shortage in the country.

The RBI denies there8217;s any such shortage. Production of the three mints has been doubled and a fourth mint opened in Delhi. The RBI has already imported a batch of 3 billion coins from mints abroad. A second imported consignment of 3 billion coins is being unloaded in Mumbai. But the demand is insatiable. 8220;It8217;s like rain in the desert,8221; says the exasperated RBI official.In a carpet bombing move earlier this year, the RBI decided to hand out bags of change to all and sundry. 8220;Still the demand didn8217;t drop,8221; says the official. The bank witnessed huge crowds, so the distributionhad to be regulated.

The RBI then called in representatives of hoteliers, retail chemists and petrol pumps and agreed to supply them with change which they could redistribute to their members.

But the touts wised up to this. Forged letterheads with demands for exorbitant amounts of small change soon began appearing.When the bank implemented rationing to ensure that a person could collect coins only once a day, the touts employed several youths. Many of them sneaked in for second and third helpings. An RBI officer recalls how he caught a tout selling a whopping 150 bags of coins right outside the office. The coins are sold in a string of shops all over the city, especially in shop-infested Zaveri Bazar, for premiums ranging between five and seven rupees a bag of 100 coins.

Most small traders are happy to pay the touts small premium to obtain their supply. As an RBI official asks, 8220;Why would a small trader from Borivli come and spend an entire day here with three helpers to collect his quota ofchange?8221;. The coins are also taken to Gujarat and melted down for their metal and sometimes used as washers in machinery. Many RBI officers feel that the country8217;s premier bank should be left to formulate policy measures and delegate the task of distributing currency to smaller banks.