Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise announcement on November 8 demonetizing 500 and 1,000 notes, fish vendor Deva Lamani has been in a fix as to whether to man his stall or visit the bank to get change to return to his customers. “My boys and I have been making at least four trips to the bank every day so that we have enough change to render to customers. The situation is tough for everyone and we don’t want to turn people away,” he said. Lamani isn’t the only one facing this predicament. Fish sales in the market are at an all-time low owing to the effects of demonetization, so much so that vendors are apprehensive about the future of their business. “There has been a 55% drop in my business. We are barely hanging by a thread. If things don’t improve, there are dark days ahead of us,” said fish vendor Gopi Nayak. While most fish vendors in the city are refraining from accepting old 500 and 1,000notes, some are obliging in an effort to keep their sales going. “Fresh fish has to be sold within two days. Though initially we didn’t want to take any of the cancelled notes, the question of our daily bread has left us with no choice but to accept them,” said another vendor. On the other hand, butchers in the city said sales have dropped by just about 10%, and were optimistic that things will improve with time. Ever since the government has announced the demonetization of Rs 500 and 1000 notes, fish vendor Deva Lamani is in a fix. He is constantly torn between visiting the bank for the daily exchange of notes and pushing the sales of his fish. “My boys and I make at least four trips to the bank in turns so that we have adequate change to render to customers. The situation is bad for everyone so we don’t turn customers away,” Fish sales in the market are at an all-time low owing to the effects of demonetization. Vendors are apprehensive about the future of their business owing to the current situation. While most fish vendors in the city are refraining from accepting old notes of Rs 500 and 1000, some are obliging in an effort to keep the sale of their items going. “Fresh fish has to be sold within a time frame of two days. Though initially we didn’t want to take any of the cancelled notes, the question of our daily bread has left us no choice but to accept these notes,” said another vendor. “There is a 55% drop in my business. We are merely holding on by the thread. If things don’t improve there are dark days ahead of us,” said fish vendor Gopi Nayak. The chicken and meat businesses are however stabilizing as of now. Meat traders in the city have reported only a 10% drop in sales but remain optimistic that businesses will normalize with the passage of time.
2016 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.