Even after 30 days of demonetisation, Tamil Nadu continues to face a cash crunch with banks and ATMS still running dry and only Rs. 2000 notes available.
On the other hand, firms offering digital payments have seen interesting trends on how people utilised them to tide over the crisis.
On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the biggest-ever demonetisation exercise in India by withdrawing Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes as legal tender.
“For Paytm, Chennai was the seventh big city in terms of transactions. With demonetisation, we have seen a definite increase in transactions and it will become the fifth top city in terms of usage,” Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice President, Paytm, said.
He also pointed out prior to the demonetisation drive, out of 100 people only 50 were active users from Tamil Nadu. “Now we are seeing 100 per cent active users, when compared to other States where the adoption is quite slow.”
Interestingly, Paytm is seeing its wallet being used mostly in petrol pumps in Tamil Nadu. “That was a surprise, given the fact that petrol pumps were allowed to accept the old Rs. 500 and Rs.1,000 notes till December 2. This might be because petrol pumps were not able to tender change,” Mr. Abbot said. The other key use cases for Paytm were for buying medicines and paying for local transportation.
A cement dealer said the firms extended credit to facilitate retail sales and this was done to customers with good credit profile and who had long-term relationship. He also said most dealers had shifted to digital payment modes.
Chennai-based BeWo Technologies, which provides a point of sale device to kirana stores for billing, is extending the device to offer digital payment options. “Currently, the system comes with an integrated printer, barcode scanner, 3G, UPS and comprehensive PoS application including billing, inventory and promotions. We are extending it to digital payments and are in talks with mobile wallets and banks,” said R Sampath, MD and CEO of BeWo.
Chennai-based Planhound, whose app allows users to track their mobile usage and choose an appropriate plan, has seen on average 70 per cent increase in transactions post the demonetisation drive. “We have enabled more digital payment options and also run attractive cash back coupon schemes, which enabled us to see increased number of transactions,” its co-founder Ankit Chhajer said.
