Mumbai: One of the sectors catapulting India to third highest position globally in terms of cash circulation is real estate.
Despite realty associations officially declining that they transact in hard cash, the ground reality is quite the opposite.
During the three-day long property exhibition organised by the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) wherein several of them had put up their stalls to market their projects, some of them were willing to accept part payment in cash.
This correspondent approached some of them posing as potential homebuyer.
Irrespective of the ticket size of the homes up for sale at NAREDCO’s exhibition, there were builders showing willingness to take as much as 60 percent of the payment in cash. On such mixed payment, they were willing to further negotiate the price of the apartment.
This correspondent had approached big, medium and small sized developers participating in the expo.
This position of dealing in “black money” is contrary to what the industry leaders have repeatedly attempted to portray ever since the demonetisation happened in the country back in November-December 2016.
On the sidelines of the exhibition, on Sunday, The Free Press Journal approached Sandeep Runwal, president of NAREDCO Maharashtra. He denied any of their members or exhibition participants being involved in accepting cash as payment, which doesn’t get reflected on legal papers.
He said, “At NAREDCO, there is no cash and white. It's the only flexible payment option in terms of staggered payment (through banking transactions) till the time possession is handed over to the flat purchaser.”
When pointed out to him about exhibitors' willingness, he replied, “They must not be actual developers.”
He continued to add that the exhibition that concluded on Sunday only had “actual developers” showcasing their projects.
Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of India in one of its reports, had stated that the currency in circulation stood at Rs 32.2 lakh crore. High denomination notes of Rs 2,000 are not being used for such payments, an indicator of people using it as a store valued currency.
As per reports, if the global data on cash in circulation is compared, India ranks third in highest cash circulation after Japan and Hong Kong in terms of gross domestic product.
A significant spike in cash circulation in India happened during the pandemic period. In India, the per capita currency works out to be approximately Rs 22,750.
