Shortage of coins gets worse, causing frustration and loss

The satirical story doing the rounds that Samsung delivered $1 billion to Apple in nickels (5¢ coins) will hopefully not give Indians (including the Aam Aadmi Party) ideas. It is just as well that a genuine attempt last week by an irate Australian man to pay an A$60 parking fine with 1,200 5¢ coins was refused by the authorities, though an incensed American did succeed in paying a traffic citation with 70,000 pennies. The logistical impossibility of exercising such an option in India, of course, is the saving grace. Small change is harder to find here than black money, barring perhaps among the fastidious shopkeepers and consumers of eastern India. And the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) has confirmed the huge shortfall in supply of coins: in 2012-13, only 6,878 million coins were released though the indent was for 9,554 million, and the gap is likely to widen this year.

Indeed, RBI data showing that coins of 50 paise and 25 paise now only represent 17.5% of the total coins in circulation — down from 52% just three years ago — and have been supplanted by the Rs 1 coins also underlines the disappearance of the decimal point from price tags. The recent revelation by a Chennai trader of a daily loss of Rs 500 due to this paucity of coins adds another dimension to the cry for change that gets louder, the closer we get to the 2014 elections.