Post-demonetisation of Rs 500 and 1000 currency notes and emphasis of Government on usage of plastic currency, the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) canteens have started the installation process of Point of Sales (PoS) terminals machines. The CSD is a civilian wing which comes under the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
In the state of Uttarakhand 165 CSD canteens are located and less than twenty percent of these canteens are having the PoS machines installed in them. One of a senior officer of CSD posted in Dehradun depot informed that Dehradun alone has 45 canteens which range from small unit run canteens to big canteens at the station (brigade or sub area) headquarters.
The unit run canteens, most of which do not have the facility of the PoS terminals or swipe machines witnessed a fall in sale after the demonetisation decision was taken. “Since we deal only in cash, the sale dipped to as much as fifty per cent in initial days, it has now recovered but it is still ten to twenty percent less than what it used to be before the demonetisation. Now we are told that soon swipe machines would be installed in our canteen,’’ said a personnel of a unit run canteen in the Garhi cantonment area. The massive sub area canteen located at the Garhi cant has the facility of the PoS machines.
In this canteen the usage of the swipe machines has increased as customers prefer to pay by the cards now. The ‘365 Forever departmental store’ located near the sub area canteen is also experiencing a fall in sale after demonetisation. “ Now 90 percent of the customers are opting to pay by their cards. Earlier very few people used to pay by cards though we had the facility. Cash crunch and change in perception of people has resulted in increase in awareness for digital mode of payment and armed forces personnel and ex- servicemen are no exception,’’ said the assistant manager of store, A S Rawat.
More and more army personnel and veterans are opting to pay by cards and other means of cashless system. “All I did of debit card earlier was to take out money from the ATMs, now I have started using it to make payments at petrol pumps and other places. I have overcome the initial hesitation of using cards,’’ said Surendra Singh Rawat a retired Havildar and resident of Balawala.
Working with an aim of providing easy access to quality products of daily use, at a price of less than market rates to the soldiers, ex servicemen and their families, the CSD canteens supply toiletries, household requisites, general use items, watches and stationery, liquor, food and medicines and automobiles.