Nellore: Builders and money lenders are facing a peculiar situation. Their clients, who are not responding to their demand to clear loans since a longtime, voluntarily coming forward to settle the loans but the remittance is in demonetised Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes.
A builder, who didn’t want to be identified, said that at least two clients came to settle old dues in cash on Thursday but he demanded a cheque because he has to account the money.
Private money lenders, who give gold loans, have been accepting big denomination notes and people are rushing to collect the pledged gold since keeping and disposing gold is easier than exchanging currency, a gold trader said.
According to the trader, gold biscuits have become hot cakes as most of those keeping high denomination notes are swapping them for gold. The 100-gram biscuit that was costing Rs 3.25 lakh before Tuesday was being sold for Rs 4.1 lakh in Nellore.
Similarly standard gold was being sold for Rs 4,100 per gram as against the market rate of Rs 2,950, for those offering banned currency.
Real estate promoter V. Murali of Nellore, said the sector was the worst hit due to government move because 70 per cent of the business is done with black money. He observed that it will take more than 2 to 3 years for the sector to limp back to normalcy.
He added that private chit companies will also disappear since most of the transactions are illegal.
