The call Money is not a new financial instrument invented by the Andhra Pradesh money lenders to make a quick buck given the lean money supply to the small time entrepreneurs, especially the women, in the state. With the self employment avenues going up in the recent past following the success of self-help groups, and proliferation of unorganized business activities in urban centres, the demand for short term loans has gone up phenomenally. Another indirect reason for the greater demand is the non-implementation or partial implementation of the loan waiver for SHGs, according to opposition parties. This has been going for years, and the business, according to police sources, runs to thousands of crore. Congress MLC and Chartered Accountant C Ramachandraiah says the present boom in the call money business is triggered by banks failure to extend loans to SHGs as their previous loans are not cleared fully in the loan waiver schemes by chief minister Naidu. So, these women groups have nothing to fall back upon except to go to private money lenders. This situation has given rise to the ‘Call Money’ market, which is hitherto confined to the stalk business.
In money market, Call Money is a short term loan with a duration of one day. Banks extend this type of loans to fill the asset liability mismatch. Call Money, in Andhra Pradesh context, is the instant loan, extended on phone call without any guarantee, but at exorbitant rate of interest, and of course, with stringent conditions. Money is normally lent with promissory note and with conditions favorable to the lender. If borrower failed to repay the loan he or she would lose her property movable and immovable, or both. In most cases, the loan never gets cleared and borrower ends up paying interest unending.
Since huge profit involved, in many cases relatives and family members of politicians started the Call Money business. Others earned the support from the political parties by paying huge party fund. All types of coercive methods are employed to collect the interest if unpaid with borrowers business often going awry because of vagaries of economy. This is exploited by the unscrupulous elements in the business by forcing the women and their daughters to trade sex for postponement of the loan. Though this is the traditional economic activity, it took new name ‘call money’ with entry of politicians and their henchmen.
Even though the opposition party is trying to exploit the situation to its favor, police raid indicate, politicians from all parties have their fingers in the dirty business. Police sources said as many as 29 leaders from all political parties, TDP (8), Congress (10), YSRCP (10) and also Left (1)have been taken into custody. So far, Police have rounded up 57 organizers of call money. ” We have seized 938 promissory notes, 192 blank cheques, eight stamp papers, 25 account books, 310 property documents , several agreement papers ,” Vijayawada police commissioner Goutam Sawang, the man responsible for the unearthing of the crime, said.
The whole scam is the throwback to the micro finance scam surfaced some five years back in Andhra Pradesh in a similar context. Majority of the victims of Micro Finance harassment were the women of SHGs and many of them forced to commit suicide. There were reports that MF companies, thinking that they would get insurance money once the borrower died, used to force the women commit suicide. While MF companies were organized by non-political players, Call Money racket is run with the full patronage from politicians-this is the difference.
