Two years after Demonetisation, cash is still king in digital age
CHENNAI: Two years ago when demonetisation was announced, Vijay Jain was very prompt to opt for mobile wallet payment gateway to serve his customers in a better way. But today he shies away from using it and insists on his customers paying him in cash. This is not the lone story of Vijay, who owns a small garment shop in T Nagar. Many small traders and retailers in the city are yet to go cashless, which was the main objective behind the demonetisation.
For the small traders and retailers in the city, cash is still the king. The small garment shop owners, grocery store owners, eateries, and medicine shopkeepers are avoiding using the cashless transactions methods, saying that they are more comfortable with the cash.
“There was severe cash crunch in the market after the note ban and so I had started accepting payments through mobile wallets to keep my business afloat. But now normalcy has been restored and majority of the customers prefer to pay through cash. Hence, I have stopped accepting payments through the mobile wallet as using it was a cumbersome affair for me,” said 52-year- old Vijay.
Similar was the reaction of Nagaraj Viswanath, who owns a sweet shop at Egmore. “As the demand for digital payments from customers has declined, I have started avoiding using the card-swiping machine in my shop,” said Nagaraj.
Ballyan Rao, a vegetable trader, too switched back from cashless mode. “After demonetisation, people had no cash in hands, so I started taking payments through cards and mobile wallets. But I faced a problem as I had to spend a lot of time in withdrawing money from banks because the petty traders from whom I procure vegetables asked for cash payments only,” said Rao. Meanwhile, Nilanjana Sen, a home-maker blamed online scams. “There has been a rise in the number of crimes related to digital payment and frauds. I use my debit/credit cards only at necessary places.”