SRIKAKULAM: Started with much enthusiasm the cashless transaction has lost much of the stream in Srikakulam district. The shop owners who were considered as the torchbearers of the digital modes of payment in the ground level are now shying away from it.
Not that only the availability of cash in the customers’ pockets and convenience of cash transactions have made the ship owners not using the e-PoS terminals as they blame it on the bank charges for using the devices which was not the case during the initial days of demonetisation.
“In the first three months after I got the terminal, I used to make cashless transactions up to 7,000 a month. But, there were no user charges then. I bought the terminal paying Rs 5,000. Now, the bank is deducting up to Rs 700 every month from my account towards the user charge.
I have not a single cashless transaction in the last three months,” says K Laxmi, a grocery shop owner at Srikakulam rythu bazaar. Post-demonetisation, some 29 shops including the vegetable vends were supplied with e-PoS terminals by the DRDA and the district authorities. But now, 28 shops are not using the devices and preferring cash payments.
“Being illiterate, I do not know much about the e-PoS terminal. But, the officials forced me to buy one. As I was not aware of the operation, many customers intentionally cheated me by making wrong entries. I suffered losses. Why should I use it?” asked S Venkata Rao, a vegetable vendor at the rythu bazaar. The vendors say that they stopped using the e-PoS terminals after the bank started levying the user charges.
“For a few months, I realised that a particular amount was being deducted from my amount. The bank officials told that we had to pay the user charges for the terminals. So, we have stopped using the devices now and are requesting the customers to pay in cash,” says K Venkata Rao, another vendor at the rythu bazaar.