Demonetisation might have shelved many small businesses and left daily earners to starve but it has certainly opened new vistas of earning for many bankers, post office employees, petrol tank employees and unemployed persons through the new flourishing business of currency exchange.
The business of exchange of old currency notes with new ones or getting change against them is going on indiscriminately in the State Capital like elsewhere in the country and the condition is that every nook and corner of the city is abuzz with this new business talks while middlemen are readily available for getting the exchange done.
Unemployed youths and petrol tank employees earned anything from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 by indulging in the newly-flourishing business of currency exchange while the banker's income is estimated at ten times more than that of these persons.
The exchange rates vary as per the requirement of the needy and denomination of notes. The rate for getting change of old Rs 500 note against notes of Rs 100, Rs 50 and Rs 20 is 15 per cent while getting the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 note exchanged with new note in the denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 2000 is 20 per cent.
A middleman said the modus operandi of the currency exchange business is that the petrol pump employees and wholesale buyers of the notes are continuously in contact with each other and as soon as minimum a lakh rupee are collected the wholesaler comes and takes away the new currency or smaller denomination notes whatever are they by giving older notes that have been demonetised. In this game, the petrol pump employees get a cut for them that varies from 5 to 8 per cent as per the denomination of the notes.
The wholesaler now sells these notes to the needy through the network of middlemen in touch with him by cutting 12 to 15 per cent and the middleman adds his one per cent in that. If there are more than one middleman then one per cent of every middleman is added and the deal for end customer becomes costly.
On the other hand, the bankers deal through bank employees and branch manager's nexus with their select middleman. Here the currency in exchange is provided in the denomination of Rs 50, Rs 100 and the new notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2000 depending upon the volume that should minimum be in lakhs and the commission charges by the bankers is 12-15 per cent.
The smallest fish of the game the post office employees too are involved in the business and are doing it through middleman in contact with them though the volume here is much less compared to petrol pump and banks.
Bhopal Inspector General of Police (IG) Yogesh Chowdhry said, "We are alert and keeping vigil over the market. Some people have been caught and cases under the relevant sections are registered against them.
The Crime Branch is especially alert and active on the ground level to ensure that no illegal activity related to currency exchange or selling take place in the city."