SRIKAKULAM: Demonetisation has hit the textile business ahead of the New Year and Sankranti festive season. The traders in Srikakulam say that the per day business of the garment market has dropped from the regular `1 crore to somewhere between `30 and `40 lakh after the demonetisation of high value currency notes.
The usual hustle bustle of the market on the GT Road dotted with around 200 small and medium garment showrooms was missing and it wore a deserted look on Sunday, which the traders say a very unlike trend ahead of the festive season.
“The demonetisation has hit the garment business hard this Sankranti season. The business has come down by more than 50 per cent in major shops, while it is up to 75 per cent for the small (roadside) and medium shops,” says Konark Sreenu, president of Srikakulam cloth merchants association.
Usually, the traders do their bulk business between December and January 15 every year during the festive season of Christmas, New Year and Sankranti.
But, this year, the business has lost its sheen as the traders are incurring loses for the want of buyers, with the roadside vends being the worst hit for lack of loose tender.
“Customers offer `2,000 notes for the material priced at `200 and we can not manage loose tender for each customer. They are going away,” says Konchada Prakash Rao, a roadside garment vendor.
After the business declining fast after demonetisation, the traders took the e-payment routes too. But, they say it is not much of help. Keeping the Sankranti season in view, around 100 traders have installed e-PoS terminals. But, the machines fail owing to technical snag. A few terminals fail to handle the crowd. Those frequently develop snags like register overload and network problems. “I set up POS machine at my shop, but it hardly functions, showing overload, network problem and other errors. Around 20 per cent of the customers leave even after choosing their pick for lack of payment facility,” says Konark Sreenu, who is also owner of the Konark Readymade Showroom.
He says that he applied for another PoS terminal some 20 days ago, but it is yet to be delivered.