Vendors scheme to beat the currency blues

Milk vendors are accepting the ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes for advance bookings in bulk. Vendors said they will deposit the notes collected before the deadline is up.

Milk vendors are accepting the ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes for advance bookings in bulk. Vendors said they will deposit the notes collected before the deadline is up.

As there is time till December-end to exchange notes, vendors and shopkeepers are accepting the scrapped notes for advance booking of commodities (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

Rambir Grujar, a milk kiosk operator in Gaur City in Greater Noida west, said he is allowing advance booking till December 15.

“The biggest booking that I received since the demonetisation is for ₹20,000, which is milk supply for a year-and-a-half as per the customer’s requirement. The person paid in the out-of-circulation ₹500 notes. He said that he had kept cash at his residence and was unsuccessful in depositing it twice as the queues were too long,” Gurjar said.

He said that milk vendors and shop owners have started a coupon system as well and the market is running on credit. “For those who don’t want a regular supply of milk, we have floated a coupon system. People can buy coupons using old notes of ₹500 and ₹1,000 and they can use the coupons to buy milk whenever they want. We are maintaining a register to keep track of this,” Gurjar said.

A sweet shop owner in Gaur City is also accepting ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes for a quantity of sweets equivalent to the amount.

“The business is going on as usual, but a couple of our employees stand in queues at banks every morning to deposit cash. We will accept the old currency notes till December 20 as we will require at least 10 days to deposit the cash,” Ramesh Yadav, accountant of the sweet shop, said.

Water suppliers have also found ways to keep their business running. They are supplying the 20-litre cans, that range from ₹30-₹80, on credit till the customer’s bill is a round figure.

“The market is running on credit, so is our business. There is a cash crunch, but we are finding ways to deal with it. Nobody wants to shell out change below ₹100 or ₹500. So, we are waiting till bill reaches ₹100 or ₹500,” Manoj Yadav, a water supplier in Gaur City, said.

Pan shop vendors said they have stopped selling cigarettes in loose. “Business was non-existent in the first week, but now people are buying packs of cigarettes. Selling gutkha and pan masala still remain a challenge,” Anmol Tiwari, a pan shop vendor in Sector 120, said.