Bhopal: Exactly one year has passed since the central government demonetised currency notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500. While the government celebrates the Note Ban Day on Wednesday as war on black money, common man has not yet recovered from the loss caused by demonetisation.
Free Press talked to some businesswomen and home makers in the city to know their experience about the after effects of note ban when the currency note of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination were suddenly withdrawn from the market. The businesswomen said they have not been able to meet the loss. Similarly, the homemakers said they had stopped spending more money.
Dr. Sarita Shrivastava, beautician
In comparison to last year, our parlour business has reduced by 30%. Our clients used to give note of Rs 2000 for work of Rs 200. Then number of customers has become less due to cash crunch. We also worked without money for our regular customers till some days. But they paid me later. Now, the situation is better. People have now become mentally prepared for this and spending money after thinking.
Chanda Kingrani, owner of Rangrezaa designer lounge
Bahot Jayada asar pada hai…. Our business was affected a lot especially from January to September. The sales have gone down by 50%. We have boutique shop so most of our customers are women who used to save their money at home. But after demonetisation they have deposited the old currency in banks. And we all have to face cash crunch at that time. We faced loss of approx Rs 3 lakh and we are still trying to recover by selling our old stocks on 50 percent discount. Our Diwali business was good. But still it will take some time for things to get normal.
Prachee Dadlani, owner of Astha Diamond Jewellery
We had to face huge financial problem for three months. We had to cancel our orders and most of our payment was not cleared because we didn’t take old currency from customers. We have completed last year’s order recently. Demonetisation hit jewellery business more in comparison to others. The flow of money has started from September.
Umang Shridhar, founder of Khadiji
Our sales were down completely for three months. We mostly display khadi products in exhibition. And at the time, customer had old currency which we were not being accepted and it affected our business a lot. Most of customers didn’t have credit and debit card. Also, we had to cancel our exhibition due to cash crunch. Not only demonetisation, but also Goods and Service Tax (GST) hit our sales. Now, there is huge confusion among buyer and sellers for the tax on Khadi.
Suchita Talreja, homemaker
We had currency change problems for two months for purchasing vegetables and milk packets. At that time, we realised the importance of notes Rs 100, Rs 20 and Rs 10. After demonetisation, we started spending money in limit. We decreased the menu in Kitty party. Earlier we used to give lunch but now we manage it with two namkeen and one sweet dish. We now go to sabji mandi along with friends by one car to purchase vegetables. We also cut our expenses by avoiding to purchase readymade dress.
Sonia Soni, homemaker
First of all, I had to take out that money which I used to hide from our husband and gave it to him to deposit in bank. We had to face cash crunch till 15 days. We had no ATM card, now we have. Overall, it was a good experience. After that, we came to know the importance of money and we stopped splurging.
Simran Moolchandani, homemaker
We did not face more cash crunch. Yes, we started spending money in limit at that time. We had to face change problem. But at the same time, we feared using new technology and also feared what will come next.
