Flagging the rupee and giving it short shrift
In July 2010, India joined the ranks of the major currencies of the world by adopting a symbol for the rupee — an elegant blend of Devanagari and English alphabets with attributes of the tricolour represented in the two lines at the top and white space in between.
The rupee symbolises the strength of our economic system and our rising financial prowess, acknowledged and admired the world over.
At a time when we are celebrating the growth of our economy, the symbol and substance of what the rupee represents is undermined by an irrational policy of our government. The rupee, a perfectly legal form of currency through the entire length and breadth of our country, becomes unusable in a certain area — the protected environs of duty-free shops at our international airports, where the memorable phrase ‘show me the money’ acquires a whole new meaning. If you are an Indian national feel free to buy what you want. Of course, terms and conditions apply — you can spend a maximum of Rs 5,000 in Indian currency. But if you are a foreign national and the billing assistant asks cash or card?
please don’t make the mistake of offering rupees — they are unacceptable. You can shop till you drop, but pick up a credit card or foreign currency to pay for the purchase.
Is there another nation that disregards its own currency as we reject the rupee in our territory? I think not. At international airports, prices are marked in local currencies and paid for in local currencies. Among the great and small nations, we are the only one that gives short shrift to our own currency and refuse to accept the rupee as a form of payment. It defies common sense.
For foreign tourists ‘Incredible India’ turns into incredulous India when after a memorable stay in our country they are told the rupees they used throughout their stay are not good enough at the airport duty free shop. Imagine the irritation of travellers who have set aside a few hours and a few thousand rupees to take back tangible memories of India. The Indian currency in their hand cannot pay for the goods they buy. They have to change their Indian rupees into foreign exchange by paying a commission, a double whammy since they would have paid it to convert their foreign exchange into Indian rupees at the time of arrival. Instead of being able to spend it freely at the point of departure, they have to convert it before spending it.
How does it serve us — in economic terms or in terms of perception of being seen as a warm and hospitable country — if the foreign traveller decides against shopping because she cannot use the rupees in her wallet? What is the policy compulsion behind such a practice? When foreign tourist and business travellers spend money in India, on their stay, food and shopping, it flows into our economy. Why does the colour of money become an issue in the hands of a foreign national at an international airport? A rupee is being spent in India. What is the harm in that?
Outdated law
At a time when we are building state-of-the-art airports with facilities and services comparable to the best in the world, this law is outdated. India is likely to emerge as an important hub in the years to come and it makes enormous economic sense to take this one simple step to make the entire visiting experience a pleasant one for tourists and business travellers. There are many international airports that are marketed as the ultimate shopping destination for travellers. We are not in the same league yet but if we want to get there, we should review our policies. If we don’t change our attitude we will lose an important source of revenue, as sales at some of the best duty free shops run into billions of dollars, sorry, thousands of crores of rupees annually.
India is a trillion-dollar economy, growing at close to 9 per cent with foreign exchange reserves of almost $300 billion. The strength of the Indian economy is for all to see and experience. As a country confident of our economic ability and our financial muscle we should allow the use of Indian rupees at duty free shops. This step will be in line with our recent adoption of the rupee symbol; it will increase the visibility of our currency and enhance its distinctive identity.
When Sher Shah Suri introduced the first rupee in the early part of the 16th century, he could not have imagined that 500 years later our currency would not hold sway in some parts of our sovereign territory. It took me five years of relentless letter writing to all stakeholders and decision makers — the ministry of finance, the ministry of tourism and the Reserve Bank of India to get Indian citizens to use rupees at airport duty-free shops. That change of policy was notified in September 2005. I hope I don’t have to wait that long to get this discriminatory policy struck off the rule book.
The new rupee icon includes a symbol of equality. The time has come for us to reduce the artificial divide between my rupee and their rupee. In India, we accept the rupee anytime, anywhere.
(The writer is an MP representing Kurukshetra constituency of Haryana)
