After the transaction, the central bank has a building on the asset side of its balance sheet. But, at the same time, on the liability side, there is an equivalent amount representing the currency issue of the bank. Governments impose inflation tax on the society by borrowing from central banks. When such borrowings are effected, the government would give the central bank a government security such as a treasury bill. The central bank, in return, permits the government to take away an equivalent amount of currency and spend it to make payments. So, on the asset side of the bank’s balance sheet, it has a treasury bill. On the liability side, this asset is matched by a new liability called currency issued by the bank. But, to acquire that asset, the central bank has to spend only a fraction of the face value of the asset enabling it to make a huge profit out of the transaction. Central banks’ lending to governments become highly inflationary on another count. That happens when the commercial banks make use of this currency issued by the central banks as seed money to produce more bank money in the form of deposits. When governments spend the currency borrowed from central banks, such currency finally gets back to commercial banks as deposits of the public. Commercial banks, in turn, use such deposits to create more deposits and credit.
They create deposits and credit in multiple terms restricted only by the public’s preference for currency as against deposits and banks’ own need for keeping a safe cash reserve to meet public’s demand for cash. In Sri Lanka, commercial banks could create bank money five times higher than the initial amount of currency issued by the central bank. Because of this ability to self-produce in multiple terms, (in Sri Lanka, that multiplier is 5), the seed or reserve money produced by central banks is also called “high powered money”. Thus, the total money in an economy would be much more than what a central bank would issue to the economy. When that money which is known as money supply chases after the limited availability of goods and services, the general price level would elevate to a higher level. If it happens continuously, inflation sets in an economy imposing an inflation tax on the society. Why is there a preference for inflation tax? There is a general preference for inflation tax for several reasons. First, it is easy, quick and convenient to borrow from the central bank, compared to conventional forms of taxes available to a government. Such conventional taxes need to be backed by legislation, take time to generate the tax revenue and have to be enforced by an elaborate tax administration. It also runs the risk of failing to generate the required revenue due to tax evasion and avoidance.