Small traders reluctant to accept ₹2,000 notes
Small traders and businessmen are reluctant to accept the new ₹2,000 notes, fearing that they might be counterfeit or the government may withdraw them soon, HT has found.
“Where will the traders go if the government withdraws ₹2,000 note?” asked Sandeep Bansal, president of Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Mandal. Rishi Pal, a trader in Haryana’s Hisar recalled the problems the business community faced after ₹1,000 and ₹500 noted were demonetised in November 2016 and said they don’t want to go through a similar ordeal again.
Their fears are further fanned by a widely-circulated Whatsapp message, which claims that the government will soon phase out the ₹2,000 note. Although the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rubbished the message as a rumour, it said on Tuesday said that printing of the ₹2,000 notes stopped about five months ago to step up the production of smaller bills, including a new ₹200 note.
Jitendra Kumar, a trader in Haryana’s Karnal, said customers too preferred to carry out transactions in ₹100 and ₹500 notes as getting change for ₹2,000 for small transaction was difficult. Sanjay Gupta, president of Uttar Pradesh Adarsh Vyapar Mandal, said the traders were not willing to accept the highdenomination notes as “getting smaller currency for ₹ 2,000 notes, even from banks”, was not easy.
The traders were also wary of accepting ₹2,000 notes due to messages warning against high circulation of fake notes.
“I don’t accept ₹2,000 notes from unknown customers as there are many fake notes being circulated in the market. I stopped accepting such notes from unknown customers from January-February itself,” said Ramesh Keswani, owner of a provisional store in Bhopal.
Rishi Pal, who runs a pesticide shop in Karnal’s Indri said, “We are taking ₹2,000 note but we examine it twice because of rumour about the fake currency notes”.
However, traders in a few other places like Jaipur, Ranchi, Kashmir, Delhi and Mumbai, however, said there was no problem in conducting business in ₹2,000 notes.