The urgency that businesses and hotels in Mysuru showed in procuring Point of Sale (PoS) machines or card-swiping machines soon after the demonetisation exercise came into effect seems to have reduced with the cash crisis easing a bit.
As banking sources maintain that 80-90 per cent of ATMs have become operational across the district, currency availability, though with limitations, is looking up. However, the withdrawal limit in ATMs continues to be Rs. 4,500 a day and the limit at banks has stayed at Rs. 24,000 a week.
A senior official of a public sector bank told The Hindu that the urgency in procuring the PoS machines seems to have eased though businesses were not averse to procure them sooner or later. “They know people will soon opt for cashless transactions and PoS machines will become essential then.”
“The kind of exigency the firms showed immediately after demonetisation is not visible now even though the demand for card-swiping machines across the country has doubled. This may be owing to the normal functioning of ATMs that has led to an easing of the crisis to some extent,” the officer said, and added that however, card usage had gone up with the Centre announcing rewards for cashless transactions.
Restaurants in Mysuru had booked over 150 PoS machines with the banks and agencies authorised by banking institutions after demonetisation. “The demand for PoS machines was at the peak when we had booked such machines and were in a hurry to procure them. But banks were unable to supply the same owing to a rise in demand and inadequate supply,” said Mysuru Hotel Owners’ Association President Narayana Gowda.
Mr. Gowda told The Hindu that the pressure of adopting the machines may have reduced but more restaurants, even smaller ones, were ready to adopt the machines sooner or later. “We have to accept them one day or the other. Let us be prepared,” Mr. Gowda replied.
