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Chapter 1316: Chapter 1171: Counterfeit Money? (Please Subscribe!)
Myanmar.
Sikai Province.
Myanmar’s northern province.
With a long border with India, there has always been ’disputes’, not military ones, but small frictions over land, with the Indian side often moving the boundary monuments a few hundred meters into this side.
Planting vegetables.
Chopping wood.
Gathering firewood and the like.
They never tired of this, and sometimes people would even come over to build houses or hunt, making it very hard to manage. There was a lot of daily communication between the two sides, which never escalated to life-or-death fighting, and trade was extremely frequent.
Langyu County.
A Myanmar county town on the border.
Here,
is the largest trade border county of Sikai Province with India.
With a population nearing one hundred and fifty thousand.
Every day saw a large number of traders from both countries engaging in trade here. In the past, India’s industry was more developed than Myanmar’s, supplying industrial products here in exchange for Myanmar’s agricultural products.
But now,
the situation has unexpectedly reversed.
The industrialization level of some economic special zone in Myanmar seemed even stronger than India’s, leading to a fundamental change in the trade situation here, with Indian ’advanced industrial products’ suddenly finding no market.
This left many Indian merchants unable to accept the situation for a while.
You used to be so poor,
how can you be richer than me now? But resentments solve nothing. After local merchants conducted evaluations, they found no way to reverse their fortunes and gradually transitioned from export to import trade.
They used to be able to sell medicines there.
Later, they were outright banned from selling.
What troubled Indian merchants the most was,
Myanmar had reevaluated its import product catalogue.
They strengthened border management and market access regulations, restricting entry of substandard products made by India’s backward industrial equipment manufacturing, especially regarding food, medicines, and various chemical products.
The controls were particularly strict.
To enter the Myanmar market,
one must pass Myanmar’s examinations, meeting their various environmental and technological standards, such as plastic products, which must include a kind of additive from Myanmar Environmental Technology Company that prevents harmful substances from penetrating into the food contained.
Otherwise,
they were considered unqualified.
And were not allowed on the market.
In short,
once Ling arrived,
everything changed.
Life became tough for Indian merchants.
Customs had completely changed staff here, and the product testing rights were held in the capital; the small county towns had no authority to issue certificates of compliance for their products, and even if they knew someone, they couldn’t get through to Myanmar’s capital.
In the end,
they had no choice.
They had to turn to a different business.
As the trade between the two sides was very frequent, there was a considerable amount of Myanmar kyat left in India, hence this morning, the county sent people to notify the other side to exchange their Myanmar kyat for Asia dollars by the end of the year.
Otherwise,
they might stop offering the exchange next year.
When they heard this news,
many Indian merchants came to the county town with their Myanmar kyat.
They had previously converted most of their money into Asia dollars or Rupees, but still had some Myanmar kyat, since they often received Myanmar kyat when selling goods imported from Myanmar in India.
Along the lengthy border,
Myanmar kyat had a small circulation within the border area.
In the county,
at nine o’clock in the morning,
Myanmar Bank branch,
a long line had formed at the entrance.
"Everyone, please do not push. We have sufficient Asia dollars and Rupees, everyone will get their exchange," shouted the security guard with a loudspeaker, the sun was already high, but the enthusiasm of the people in line was even higher. 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘱𝘶𝑏.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Inside the bank.
The banknote counter at the cashier’s desk whirred as it counted cash.
A cashier finished counting a stack of mixed new and old cash, pulled out over twenty high-denomination Myanmar Kyats from the banknote counter, and said to him, "Sorry, I’m confiscating these bills."
"Why?" The Indian man got a little anxious—after all, it was a significant amount of money.
"They are counterfeit."
The bank staff told him bluntly.
"It’s impossible, are you sure you haven’t made a mistake?"
The Indian man was not ready to give up.
"I’ve carefully checked each one, and they are definitely counterfeit. If you have any objections, there is a room next door where someone can explain to you what makes them fake, but I’m sorry, counterfeit currency must be confiscated," said the bank staff.
He couldn’t accept it.
So, he was taken to a room on the side.
Five minutes later.
Every single bill.
Was pointed out for its counterfeit details.
He was left speechless and even wished to take them back, but was refused. Counterfeit money, once at the bank, is to be compulsorily seized. Seeing the surrounding security guards, he gave up on the idea of snatching them back.
Holding the Rupees he had exchanged.
He could only admit his bad luck. In India, counterfeit currency isn’t really a big deal; the country is rife with fake notes, with at least one-fifth of circulating cash being counterfeit.
In everyday life.
It’s become routine.
Often.
Everyone actually knows they’re fake.
But they still use them anyway, merchants still accept them, almost as if it’s an unspoken agreement. After all, they can still be spent, so no big deal. As a result, even counterfeit Myanmar Kyats are frequently accepted.
Previously, it wasn’t a big concern.
But now it seems.
He’d have to be more careful next time, or he might end up working for nothing. Nowadays, Myanmar intends to scrap the Myanmar Kyat, and in the future, here, the Myanmar Kyat will surely gradually disappear.
It seems.
In the future, he must no longer carelessly accept Myanmar Kyats.
Next.
Almost every person who came to this branch to exchange money was found to have some counterfeit notes, without exception. It’s also because too many fake notes are known to exist that banks in India completely refuse to exchange Myanmar Kyats and Rupees.
Otherwise.
If verification fails.
When exchanged back.
And if one went to a Myanmar bank and there were too many fake notes, the loss would have to be borne by one’s own bank. They wouldn’t engage in a business that is clearly unprofitable.
There was no other way.
Whether merchants or ordinary people, they could only come here to exchange or ask someone else to exchange on their behalf. In less than half a day, a business of exchanging Rupees on behalf of others was born, running errands for a little extra money.
...
In just one day.
This border branch received over eight million Asia Dollars’ worth of counterfeit Myanmar Kyats, accounting for one-third of today’s total Myanmar Kyat recovery. Seeing this number, Tang Qing was somewhat speechless.
It really is.
Quite ’Indian style.’
In this regard.
Indeed, it is world-class.
According to investigations, counterfeit currency in India accounts for nearly one-fourth of the total cash circulation, meaning theoretically, one-fourth of the cash in every Indian’s possession is fake.
Quite ’distinctive.’ Because Myanmar Kyat’s previous anti-counterfeiting technology was poor, it allowed ’skilled imitators’ in certain unlawful Indian factories to produce some as well, apparently in no small amount.
Even among the Myanmar Kyats that have been exchanged now.
Tang Qing estimated that some were still counterfeit, those identified were just the ones that were obviously fake. However, Tang Qing didn’t mind, a bit of counterfeit money... as if he’s never used it before.
When the fighters were active in India, they basically used their own printed Rupees, which were better made than the real ones. Tang Qing also restrained himself, not printing too much, only worth about ten billion Asia Dollars.
Most of it still lies in a large iron box in the Training Area.
Brand new Rupees.
Therefore.
They were even.
