While the use of credit and debit cards and digital transactions has risen from pre-note ban days, Indians mostly prefer cash for their daily transactions. Gifting of land, houses, luxury watches and sponsoring expensive travel abroad are now the preferred bribes as tax authorities clamp down on high-value cash transactions. And for India’s vast shadow economy, estimated by McKinsey & Co. at a fourth of the $2 trillion economy, the cash ban has hardly made a dent. Their recent global survey showed companies worldwide are increasingly grappling with corruption and bribery challenges. “But an equally important question for prospective investors is ‘how easy is it to exit India if business plans don’t go according to plan?’” Bloomberg

Source: Mint August 28, 2017 02:37 UTC