There aren’t enough banks and ATMs to manage the situation arising out of the demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes, and the government should consider introducing mobile cash counters, the Telangana State Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Trade said on Friday.
The government should go to the public and provide mobile cash counters at a distance of every 2-3 kilometres in metropolitan cities to tide over the cash crunch.
“If required, paramilitary personnel may be deployed for safety of the mobile cash counters. Banks also need to open more extension counters and deploy administrative staff to man them,” the federation president, Ammanabolu Prakash, said.
Slowdown
Trade in Hyderabad is incurring huge losses, Mr. Prakash said, estimating the drop in the business to be over 80 per cent for several industries and sectors. The list includes textile, automobile, sanitary, electrical, and hardware.
Electronics and furniture trade have seen a loss of 90 per cent in the backdrop of the demonetisation, the resultant cash crunch, and the time people are spending at banks and ATMs.
He estimated the loss of business for the food and hospitality sector to be as much as 58 per cent. Pavement vendors were also severely hit.
The drastic step of demonetisation has been taken without “adequate preparation or thought,” Mr. Prakash said in a release, adding that a prior, large increase of lower denomination notes in circulation would have helped ease the situation.
Noting that this is the season for weddings, he said 40 per cent of the annual turnover of businesses are generated during the period.
“Traders are holding huge stocks... retailers cannot sell the goods since customers do not have money to buy, and as a result the entire chain of supply and distribution has been thoroughly disrupted,” Mr. Prakash said.
