PANJIM: Demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes has affected the fishing industry in the State, with trawler owners and fish dealers sailing in water that turned rough overnight.
“We have been hit by this demonetisation move. All the labour expenses were paid by cash, but now we cannot pay them cash, as there is a scarcity of lower denomination notes,” said Harshad Dhond, President, All Goa Purse Seine Boat Owners Association.
“Some of the labourers don’t even have bank accounts and so used to send money to their wife’s or parents’ bank. All of that has now stopped. One of my labourer’s father was sick and he wanted money to buy medicines and also pay the doctor’s fee but I could not send him any money,” he added.
Speaking to Herald, labourers expressed dissatisfaction. “I will open a bank account now. Till now I was transacting through my brother’s account,” said Pramod Saha, a native of Orrisa.
Trawler owners told Herald that business has dropped due to demonetisation, as the shortage of currency has led to people not buying large quantities of fish. “Not only has it affected us trawler owners but even labourers have been affected. We cannot pay the labour expenses because everything was done through cash and due to shortage of cash, we are unable to pay them,” said another trawler owner.
Wholesalers also said that they are forced to sell the fish catch to local fish vendors at a cheaper rate thus affecting their business margin.
“The local fishing economy has been affected
widely not only in Goa but also in other coastal towns. I hail from Kerala and the situation there is the same. No fisherman is ready to accept the scrapped notes and as buyers don’t have other denomination notes, they do not buy. On the other hand some accept the notes as they are poor, if they don’t earn how will they survive?” said Lingu Sulae.
Fisherman Narayan Bhaje, who sells fish at the jetty, was dissatisfied because customers who come to buy fish only have currency notes of Rs 1000 and Rs 500. “When the government banned these notes, how can we accept them? All the people who still have old notes come to us to buy fish. If we accept those notes it will be a headache for us to exchange those notes later in the bank and this is the main reason for the fishing business to go down. If we don’t sell how will we survive?” said Bhaje.
