No more business on credit, fish vendors switch to e-wallets

KOLKATA: After a cash-starved week, it seems the Kolkata fish markets are finally settling down -by going the digital way . With hundreds of fish sellers opting for e-wallets like Paytm, the currency crisis can be less damaging to the business. More than 700 fish sellers from the markets in Howrah, Manicktala, Lake Gardens, Dum Dum and Salt Lake have started using e-wallets. Fed up of doing business on credit, Lake Market-based fish seller Raju Bar has recently decided to open a Paytm account. He had already sold fish worth Rs 3,500 on credit. “I can't continue doing business like that as I have to pay the wholesalers. In this scenario, e-wallet seems to be one of the best options to do business,“ he said.

Though a new concept, the e-wallet is proving to be effective in the city bazaars. With 15 to 20 per cent of income coming into their e-wallets, the mer However, most shopkee chants are fairly hopeful about it. Ashoke Mondal, a fish seller at Jadubabu's bazaar, who is accepting digital payments since Thursday , said. “Initially, hardly anybody was ready to pay digitally. But the numbers are increasing“.

Prafulla Das, another fish merchant, said on a weekday , his daily turnover is around Rs 5,000, and at present, 20% of that is coming into his e-wallet.Similar is the case with

Shital Maity

, who sells fish at Dum Dum. “On a normal day , I make anything between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5, 500. Now, nearly 12 to 15 per cent of that is coming into my ewallet,“ he said.

The end customers, paying by e-wallet, seemed to be equal ly happy about the development.

Poulomi Mukherjee

, an animation artist, was spotted buying fish using digital money at Lake Market. “I have paid my mobile bills and bought pizza using Paytm. But buying fish from

fish market

with it seems unreal,“ she said, adding, this would ease the suffering of common people to some extent. pers are facing two problems -technology and unavailability of hard cash. There are many vendors who are hesitant about the shift because of these two factors. “I am accepting digital money from the customers, but the wholesalers will not accept anything but cash from me. I have to stand in the bank queue,“ said Maity , adding he is still a bit confused about how the e-wallet app works.

The local fish markets were badly hit post demonetisation.Due to the unavailability of currency notes, the whole supply chain was disrupted. As the end buyers could not afford to spend the cash in hand, the market virtually ran on credit.

Paytm GM Nishit Sinha said, “Due to the cash crunch faced across the country , people are opting this quick and easy mobile payment system.“ He added, Kolkata has noted over 80 per cent growth in number of offline transactions while the rate of merchant on-boarding has grown by over 340 per cent.