Mumbai: November and December are when Mumbai lets its hair down: from organisations to individuals, almost everyone is in end-of-year celebration mode, and this is one time when event managers have their calendars full. Post-demonetisation, while it’s still busy season for them — and they’re thankful business isn’t down yet — some of them have had to shift to cheque payments to their vendors.
“All my vendors moved to being paid by cheque in January,” Nikita Mehta says, who runs an event management company called The Drama Queen. Where the large number of vendors employed for the organisation of events — florists, mandap walas, electricians, carpenters, contractors, in-house staff, set-up and decor assistants — were paid in cash earlier, they now follow what Ms. Mehta calls a mandatory billing practice: amounts are fixed and the money is deposited in their bank accounts. “Every one of these vendors now has a bank account.”
The switch to cheque payments has been easy for the relatively larger event management companies. Fountainhead Events, which organises large-scale events like the recently-concluded Celebrate Bandra festival as well as internal corporate events, has found bank transfer and cheque to be a convenient method, both in their payment from clients and in their payment to vendors. “Non-cash payments are working well,” says Neale Murray, who heads Fountainhead Events, “and perhaps in the long term this will make transactions more legal and accounted for. One of the implications of transfer is that payment amounts need to be fixed.”
Jatin Bhemani, a party and event planner, talks of the busy season. “Many people are planning private parties, Christmas or end-of-year events, and celebratory get-togethers.” He views this as a positive for the business. “We are lucky events are continuing.” He has between 25 and 30 events slated for December. Having been in the business for many years, he can boast of long-time relationships with vendors, and that helps when payments become difficult. These vendors include specialists for setup, theme, decor, games, art booths, activities, rides, shows, sound, lights, as well as an in-house team of anchors and emcees, art design, sound, and light managers.
“We operate on a credit system, because our vendors trust us. More or less, we manage electronic payments and employees’ salaries on time. But in case there are problems, we manage to work it out.” His priority is now to work with long-time vendors to ensure payments are received, and that nobody loses their jobs. “That would not be fair. Sorting out their payments and ensuring their jobs is my top priority.”
The vendors, on their part, have been handed their own share of problems. Being paid in demonetised notes, for one. “I have a large amount of money in demonetised notes,” says Sikander, a balloon vendor. He provides balloons and decorations to parties and events in people’s homes and in the halls of residential or community buildings. “I have Rs. 25,000 in demonetised notes. I have found it difficult to exchange these for new currency because the queues at banks are very long. The lines to withdraw money are longer.” He expresses worry about having little usable cash, and losing out on business should he try and fix the problem.
Rajesh, a dosa vendor, has similar issues. “Many of my employers have paid me, for the past two weeks, in Rs. 500 or Rs. 1000 demonetised notes. The reason I continue to accept them is because my suppliers continue to accept them. They will stop in a few days, so I, too, will stop accepting demonetised notes from them.” His smaller suppliers, too, accept cheques, so he will follow that mode of payment. “You will be surprised: my smallest supplier has a bank account, or accepts electronic payments.”
The party never stops so, in the long run, for both event organisers and their suppliers, they need to find ways to ensure they adapt and continue to cash in.
The writer is an intern at The Hindu
