So you thought that enough black money has been traced by the new move by the Centre by scraping old notes? In case you are that optimist, you needn’t be. There is a parallel economy working in the country. Not all people having old notes are able to get those exchanged. Reasons are varied. Some old people have the fear of standing too long, some have urgent appointment, some has no id cards and for people in remote areas, the bank is an hour’s walk. So how do they change? The local grocery stores are using this opportunity to earn some more. They are accepting the old notes at 10 % or 20% less value. So you pay with an Rs 500 note, but its equivalent to Rs 450 or less.
No not just in villages, even local DDA markets in Delhi have similar schemes. Some chemists are happy that people are buying other food products or cosmetics from them because the only condition they accept the old notes is to buy things of same value.
Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi, which is normally crowded anytime of the day, wore a deserted look for last few days. Speaking to the vegetable vendors who came to buy in bulk reveals the fact that their income has been hit hard. While they still believe that rich people will become poor by this means, their income has dropped to Rs 300 from Rs 1500 a day.