How are small and medium enterprises coping with the fall out of demonetisation? Traditionally, these enterprises run on thin budgets and often suffer long delays in recovering dues for supplies already made. With a liquidity crunch all over the country, these enterprises are having a hard time.
Industry insiders admit to some difficulty here and there, but nothing that they cannot tide over.
Some of the small and micro units, used to paying workers in cash on a weekly basis, have felt the cash crunch. Though they have been crying hoarse about the tight money situation, workers did not openly attack the management for deferred payment.
Industry representatives had initially issued statements stating that they would have to stop operations as withdrawal limits are small and they would therefore not be able to source material or pay off workers, particularly those on weekly basis. But most of these micro and small units are still operational. There seems to be no visible signs of industrial unrest due to non payment of wages.
For industrialists though, life goes on like before. A small scale industrialist didn’t disrupt his holiday plans despite the liquidity crunch. He said he had gone to Kerala for the weekend with his family and friends with just ₹150 in his wallet, a couple of the now invalid ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes, and plastic cards as well.
“Gas stations accept these notes, we settled our hotel dues by swiping our card and got back with the money in the wallet intact. If you ask, most people, even small shops accept cards in Kerala, and banks are giving ₹4,000 in exchange for these notes,” he said.
Meanwhile, bankers think some customers seem to be making good use of loopholes by walking into different banks with the photocopy of his/her identity card, and walking out with enough change.