Cash crunch hits business in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: Cash crunch in the city is showing serious impact on wholesale markets. Unavailability of cash at the ATMs has badly hit the monthly business of sellers in One Town and Bhavanipuram as well as other markets in the city.

Effect of demonitisations is badly hitting business sector in the city. Wholesale and retail markets which usually record huge sale in the first week of the month had recorded very poor sales with the unavailability of cash.

“We usually record huge sale of spices and other groceries in the months of February, March and April as it is pickle season. But sales this year were very poor. Majority of consumers are accommodating their necessities within a limited budget,” says J. Karthik Shetty, a wholesale trader at One Town.

“We are not able to get adequate cash as majority of the ATMs are running out of cash. We have shortened our shopping list owing to currency crunch. Despite huge discounts at shopping malls and supermarkets we are not in a position to spend a few notes left in hand,” says J. Jayashri, a housewife.

Traders in the city are alleging that poor measures taken up by banks were the reason for cash crunch. “No consumer is coming forward for a cash purchase and banks are not supplying sufficient number of e-point-of-sale (e-PoS) machines which is badly affecting our business,” says Kusuma Harinath Rao, a retailer in Besant Road.

Many daily labourers are losing their employment at the wholesale and market with the poor sales. “I lost my job recently as my shop owner decreased the staff due to poor sales. We are not in a position to find any job as no one is coming forward to hire new employees after demonetisation,”says Vannem Reddy Ajay Kumar, a daily worker in the wholesale market in Bhavanipuram.