NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Cereal and pulses wholesalers and retailers in the city are claiming that ever since the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes has been announced by the Centre their business is down by 50 per cent.
Bhagat Stores, Prabhudeva Super Market and Kashinath Bhobe claimed to have lost fifty per cent of their business due to the scrapping of high denomination currency notes.
These traders said that rates of the food grains have been static since the announcement of the demonetisation but the flow of customers has reduced, and added that it is not that people do not have money but they do not have the change.
They feel that the present business situation may prevail till December 31 or till the proper provision for change is made, and added that now people are spending judiciously thinking “they may not have Rs 100 denomination notes during exigencies.”
But, the Goan business community seems to be taking a cue from the Gujarati businessmen, and some wholesalers are doing business by keeping a very low profit margin.
If the swipe machine ‘takes away’ 2 per cent for the banks on every swipe of the credit or debit card, then “we will have to do business on no-profit no-loss basis, they said.
They further said that “India is a vast country, and 50 per cent of the people are uneducated, and it would be very difficult to switch over to the cashless economy. Everywhere, the wholesalers do business by keeping just 2-3 per cent profit margin and if they install swipe machine then probably many would have to shut business and go home.”
“For business to thrive, you require certain amount in hand, and the business runs exclusively on cash transactions. Farmers want only cash. They do not believe in plastic money. And, if you don’t pay them, you don’t get any items, and when you cannot buy you cannot sell anything,” they added.
“Now, the situation is such that no food grain trucks are coming from Belgaum, and many wholesalers are facing an acute shortage of items and as such retailer shops are empty,” they said.
Supermarkets like Bhagayatdar and the Goa State Co-operative Marketing Supply Federation are accepting old currency notes of Rs 500 and as such they have killed our retail business, said some retailers.
“Once people enter these supermarkets they buy everything under one roof and come out,” they added.
