Polls likely to impede cash movement by trade, may turn Deepavali bleak for some

Petroleum dealers are a worried lot ever since the schedule for polls to the Legislative Assembly of Telangana was announced earlier this week, along with that of four other States, as with elections come the Model Code of Conduct and intensified vehicle checks.

Though digital payments for fuel purchases by customers are on the rise, cash generated at the fuel outlets remain significant to catch attention of the authorities when being moved from the bunks to banks.

“We plan to meet election officials and impress upon them the need for a mechanism to ensure smooth movement of the daily sales collection to the banks,” said M. Amarender Reddy, a leader of the petroleum trade in Telangana. The mechanism can be in the form of the cash collection accompanied by the details on the letter pad of the petrol bunk or submission of a copy of the deposit slip, after remittance, to the authorities concerned, he said.

A major change, since the previous election to the Assembly, is an up tick in the number of customers making digital payment at the retail outlets, be they in urban or rural areas. “It has become a fashion,” he said, about customers taking to digital payments.

It is not just the petroleum trade that is worried about cash movement in the run-up to the polls as voicing concerns about their sales collections getting intercepted and their men being subjected to harassment by officials are textile wholesalers in the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad. There are around 5,000 wholesalers here who supply products to shops across the State, says Telangana State Textile Federation president Prakash Ammanabolu.

“Every month our employees go to the shops once or twice to collect cash for the supplies made,” he says, adding during checks they should be allowed if the receipts and the cash in hand tallied.

The polls schedule coinciding with the festive season when most businesses record a chunk of their annual sales, is another complaint of trade such as textiles as well as small jewellers, especially goldsmiths who supply to large showrooms. With most of the business transacted in cash and the movement of gold and diamond from one place in the city to another a daily routine, the vehicle checks and threat of being questioned and subjected to harassment are likely to slow down business and make Diwali bleak for many, said a person familiar with the jewellery business.