A new frenzy has hit the town over the weekend as the new GST law had created a lot of problems for people. This has lead to a hike in prices and has caused many individuals to rethink going out.
Pubs and restaurants appeared to have been hit the most as most prices of food items and beverages have gone up. Places like Sherlock’s and Firehouse that are both situated in Kammanahalli have seen a decrease in customers as compared to the previous week. Praveen Menon, one of the waiters at Sherlock’s had stated that Wednesday night, being a Karaoke night, was a really quiet night with a few patrons sitting quietly and eating meals.
People in this city as well as other places have complained how this tax as affected online shopping as well as online payment. Royston Workman, from Kolkata says, “It has now become a task to pay the electricity bill. Before I would pay it online and now I have to leave work earlier just so I can avoid a queue at the electricity office.”
Card transactions are also facing the same issue. D-Mart, a grocery store had a steady stream of people coming to shop for the month. All nine counters had long queues of people waiting to pay for their items with cash. This caused a shortage of change as most of the people were coming directly from the ATMs to avoid card transactions.
This all comes under financial transactions where for every transaction of Rs 100, an additional amount of Rs 3 is added. This tax is said not to affect companies and organisations on a large scaleas their transactions are in bulk. However, the laymen are going to find it costlier and more difficult.
At the moment, individuals are aiming to withdraw as much as possible from the ATMs to conduct payments with cash.
Kimberly Salako
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