Traders face harrowing time due to liquidity crunch

The supply chain of vegetable, fish and other essential commodities was hampered due to low demand that has been created following the liquidity crunch mostly affecting the farmers selling their produces in local markets.

According to Rabindranath Koley, a member of the state government’s Task Force, purchase capacity in the retail market has gone down by 3-4 times ever since the announcement. The supply chain starting from the production of vegetables by the farmers, selling them in the local markets and finally transporting these produces to the retail market have suffered a great jolt as people are unable to buy the various items due to liquidity crunch. As a result of this, the supply of vegetables and fish has registered a dip in various markets in the city. It is not even possible for the vegetable or fish sellers to give change of Rs 200 against the new currency of Rs 2,000.

“A recession has been created artificially by the Centre. The decision of the Centre for demonetisation of old currency notes was impractical and it lacked any introspection. Hence it affected the people from every walk of life especially the poor. The number of buyers has gone down. The Centre should reconsider its decision and allow the old currency notes till normalcy is restored,” Koley said.

It has been seen that vegetables and fishes remain unsold in the market incurring loss for the marginal businessman. Farmers who are involved in vegetable production are unable to sell their produces in the market as there was hardly enough demand of these items in the market. 

On the other end, the farmers do not have enough resources to keep pace with the credit cycle for all these days. Retailers, however, fear that the supply shortage might lead to rise in prices of various essential commodities once fresh currency notes enter in the market. This is because the cash rush may take weeks to reach the primary producer in the villages.

The daily business has come down from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 30-40 lakh. Retailers are not sending trucks to collect vegetables.