A sense of disbelief and outright anger characterised people’s responses on Wednesday to the inconvenience caused by the Centre’s sudden overnight move to withdraw ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes from circulation as part of an effort to combat black money.
Small businesses, including hotels, and their customers were the hardest hit by the move, and enquiries by BusinessLine across cities indicated that retail business was down by as much as 50 per cent in some hubs.
ATMs across cities were inoperational on Wednesday, which accentuated the cash crunch. There had been a stampeding of customers late on Tuesday to withdraw small-denomination notes to tide them over for the next couple of days, but not everyone was able to make it in time.
In Delhi, long queues were witnessed in petrol pumps and Metro card recharge counters, which were designated places where the high-denomination currencies were being accepted for 72 hours from Tuesday night. But most Mother Dairy milk and vegetable booths, which too were designated spots, refused to accept ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes, claiming they did not have loose change. Some customers ended up buying kilos of ghee to round off the amount.
“Where can I get so many ₹100 notes,” pleaded Ahmed, a Mother Dairy vendor, who usually hands out counter-signed slips in lieu of small change.
In some cases, people played ‘pass the parcel’ with the demonetised notes. Amuda, a domestic help, said that homemakers who typically delay her wages had given it in advance — in ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes!
The plight of the unbanked, who had set aside a pool of savings at home for family emergencies, was pitiable. Laxman, a car cleaner from Tamil Nadu, said he had saved ₹50,000 in ₹500/1,000 notes to buy a plot of land back home. He has no permanent address, no Aadhaar card and, therefore, no bank account. .
In other instances, people travelling out of town on work were stranded because their high-denomination notes weren’t being accepted. “I had sent out some products for testing to Bhopal and Bengaluru with some staff members. They are now calling to say they do not have money for food or lodging,” said an SSI owner in Chennai.
Many neighbourhood grocers extended their known customers an informal short-term credit line; other retail chains switched to card payments.
With banks scheduled to open on Thursday to distribute new notes, the hope among the harassed is that the cash-flow situation will quickly return to normalcy.
(With inputs from G Naga Sridhar, Aditi Nigam, Abhishek Law, R Balaji and Swathi Moorthy)