After the initial surge in the use of e-wallets, roadside vendors and other small shops across Noida are now becoming wary of accepting payments online.
They find it difficult to withdraw money from their accounts later. Also, when they offer to pay the retailers and wholesalers online or through cheques, most often they are met with refusal.
Raju Kumar, who owns a juice stall in Sector 15, told City Spidey that he had been accepting online payments until recently, but for the past 10 days, he agrees to e-cash only if the amount is below Rs 200. He added, "If the amount is more than Rs 200, I demand cash. I also need to pay the people I buy my fruits and vegetables from -- most of them don't accept cheques. The cash crunch is really getting to us now."
Vijay Singh, a paan stall owner in Sector 10, said, "We are still using the apps for payment, but we have run out of cash. And, when we go to banks to withdraw money, most of the times, we return empty-handed or without sufficient cash. Another problem is that the wholesalers are demanding cash, which we don't have."
Owner of a tea stall in Sector 2, Javed Khan, in fact, bought a smartphone to accept e-payments, but stopped doing so after some time for the same reasons.
Residents who had been somehow managing their daily expenses with the help of e-wallet are now a worried lot. Voicing his anxiety, Sanjeev Kumar of Sector 26 said, "If shops stop accepting online payments, it will be difficult for us to survive. The ATMs are almost always empty! How are we to pay these small shops?"
