BENGALURU: The scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has had a devastating impact on vehicle spare parts business in the city. Nearly 46 lakh registered bikes run on the streets of the I-T capital.
An average of 50 per cent slump in business has been recorded with some traders speaking of business nosediving by even up to 80 per cent.
Today, JC Road, which houses 400 spare parts shops is far from the bustle it used to witness a month ago. Instead of stretching timings beyond 8.30pm to cater to customers, shops down their shutters before 7.30pm now. Prem Kothari of Kothari Automobiles was the first to set up his spare parts business on this iconic road in 1976. “I have not seen such a crash in business ever,” he recalls. “I am now having only 30 per cent of the daily usual business. In the first week after demonetisation, I had lost 100 per cent of my business,” Kothari says.
“Most owners of spare parts shops in Mandya, Ramanagaram, Kolar, Krishnagiri and places neighbouring the city earlier used to buy parts in bulk from here. But now they too have almost stopped coming or are buying very few parts,” he adds.
Sumesh, the owner of Shaku Automobiles in Krishnagiri, was noticed purchasing parts for Rs 2,000 here instead of the Rs 20,000 he used to spend here during each visit.
Accountant at Menda Automobiles on J C Road Cross, H L Nandini says, “Saturdays used to be our best day for business. Last Saturday, we did a business of only around Rs 8,000.”
Bengaluru Motors proprietor Gurdip Singh says, “I have never seen things this bad in last 50 years.” Sanjay Mehta, Proprietor of Amandeep Automobiles, however, says, “I might have lost 40 per cent of my business of late, but the same customers will come next month when they have cash in hand.” Most of the shopkeepers are now planning to buy swipe card machine.
Retail outlets of spare parts worst hit in state
“Business has dipped by 40 per cent across the state. Money has suddenly disappeared from the market. Sale of escavators spares, teeth, sidecutters, pins, bushes and bolts for the machines has also hit all-time low,” says Muralidhar Kataria, President of the Federation of Karnataka Automobile Parts and Allied Merchants Association (KAPAMA). A Vilas Kumar, proprietor of auto distributor shops, ‘Auto Mark’ and ‘Roll Mark’ in Shivamogga, Mangaluru and Mysuru, says: “Retail outlets of spare parts have suffered a loss of business by 25 to 30 per cent. This is because their primary customers are workshops and mechanics. Since they have a 30 to 40 per cent reduction in footfall, this reduced business gets passed on to the outlets.” Kumar adds: “Those,who run their business systematically and honestly are not negatively affected.”