Demonetised Hornbill: Tourists, govt. officials feel the big pinch

Kohima, Dec. 3: In spite of full 21 days during which it could have devised counter-measures, it would appear that the state’s government has failed in devising contingency measures to mitigate blows—expected from the recent demonetisation—on this year’s Hornbill festival.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced demonetisation of old Rs 1000 and Rs 500 banknotes on November 9 last, leaving exactly 21 days i.e., three weeks, for the state’s bureaucrats to devise a fallback plan to facilitate unhindered financial exchange.

But as evidenced by the first three days of this year’s Hornbill Festival, the demonetisation has had adverse impact on tourist inflow—both domestic and international—with its number being drastically lower this year when compared to previous years’. The response of local visitors, from Nagaland, has been lukewarm too.
An observation is that the government ought to have at least arranged Electronic Data Capture (EDC) facilities at the venue. EDC machine, also known as a card swipe machine, is a payment terminal provided by banks on which users can swipe or dip cards to receive payments or execute transactions.

On Saturday, the Eastern Mirror queried of officials from the state’s Tourism department whether such facilities were arranged. In response, an officer said that the department was not ‘really sure’ and that it would be better to ask banking officials “for details”.

He said that an RBI Information booth was set up at the venue at which anyone could avail information related to banking, and that the SBI and other banks were responsible for implementation purposes. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) representatives however refused to discuss it saying that they were not authorised to do so.

A top-ranked official from the state’s Tourism department said that the department has asked stalls to install Paytm (an e-commerce website for cashless money transaction; it can be downloaded by Smartphone users) service.

The officer mentioned that transaction can be done starting from Rs 20 to a few thousands through Paytm. For the convenience of the public, an SBI ATM booth has also been installed at Kisama so that cash can be drawn.

Exchange of foreign currencies can also be done from 10.30 am and till around 2 pm, except on Saturday and Sunday, he informed. Concerning the low inflow of tourists, he said that it was ‘beyond the control of the department because of the demonetisation saga.’

Also, he said although there was not much of cancellation by foreign tourists, they could only exchange Rs 5000. Regarding domestic tourists, he said that there had been last-minute-cancellations unlike during other years, because even if they had money the withdrawing-limit stipulated by the demonetisation had already created constraints.

Another officer from the department informed that because of demonetisation, there had been ‘lack of cash’ to execute better planning of the event— most of the transactions for the event have had to be done through cash. He too noted the low number of tourists visiting this year’s Hornbill festival. The officer said that there had been instances of foreign tourists approaching the department at Kisama to exchange currencies.

Although the past three days have had lukewarm response, businesses have been functioning quite acceptably. The reason is that most of the stalls still accept the old currency notes. With still a week left, there is still hope that there would be more visitors to the festival.