Cashless Economy – Advantages and Disadvantages

Last Updated on March 19, 2019

We all would have come across this term recently – Cashless Economy.

What is Cashless Economy?

An economy that highly relies cards or digital transactions throughout the country can be called a Cashless Economy. In such an economy, the flow of physical money in and out will be minimal.

Why Cashless Economy?

In the month of November 2016, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi came up with a scheme in order to cut down the movement of black money in our society. He did this by blocking the use of Rs. 500 notes and Rs. 1000 notes and introducing new Rs. 2000 notes. Through this scheme, he believed a lot of black money that is invisible can be brought out.

Following this, he also introduced the scheme Cashless Economy. The advantages and disadvantages of Cashless Economy are:

Advantages :

  • Cashless Economy leads to Digitization which is tech savvy and time saving
  • We can see our society void of theft and burglary. Illegal activities will also stop over a period of time
  • With the help of such an economy, the circulation of liquid money is more or less reduced
  • The cost of printing currency notes and minting of coins can also be saved and fake notes issues can be eliminated from the society
  • The concept of Black money can be easily wiped off with the introduction of Cashless Economy
  • Cards and Electronic gadgets are easy to carry and safe to handle. We cannot easily carry a very huge amount  in our pockets
  • This economy can also be helpful for the monitoring the transactions and enhance tax based decisions

Disadvantages :

  • Within a second, hackers can take control of the whole economy. Cyber Crime is a great threat to Cashless Economy. If such a scenario takes place, it would be a great security issue to each and everyone
  • Lack of awareness about the advent of Cashless Economy will definitely make the whole process a lengthy one
  • Many people who are above 50 years are not tech savvy.  Educating them of digital transactions is again a big task
  • The works of the banks would change fully and their routine works are going  to become complicated and voluminous
  • Our country does not have adequate internet connections in all places. And if Cashless Economy is going to be introduced, free Internet centers for such transactions  should be available in each and every area, all over the country

With the pros and cons in hand, we can come up with an idea what changes would welcome a Cashless Economy. We need to adapt ourselves and help towards those changes to curb Black Money from our country.