Give change for Rs 100, get Rs 120 in return

BELGAUM: If you have coins, you can make money easily.If you give coins worth Rs 100, we will pay you Rs 120,” is an open offer from the Belgaum shopkeepers to people.Though the offer looks very attractive, it shows the dearth of coins in the market.As vendors are not getting sufficient coins from banks, they are opting for alternatives like giving chocolates and candies for change.However, according to rules, one can not force another to take any other thing instead of money.If a customer insists on money only, the vendors have no other option than leaving the deal due to dearth of change.Meanwhile, cashing on the situation some people are selling the coins at 5 to 20 per cent commission. The problem is haunting the owners of provision, stationery and medical shops and vegetable and newspaper vendors.“We are giving chocolates instead of change as various dailies have rates like `3.50 to `4.50. If they deny it, we obviously say ‘no paper’,” says a newspaper vendor near Central Bus Stand.Some hotel managers even give chocolates for the change of `2-3. However, customers have their own analysis.“If they give chocolates or other things, they earn additional profit,” says Prasad, a citizen of Sadashiv Nagar.As some medical shop owners are not ready to lose their business, they are ‘purchasing’ coins from touts.However, they never reveal their ‘source of coins’.“We will pay you also if you provide change,” says a medical shop owner of Shahapur.Though district has 23 currency chests, prescribed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), lack of change is haunting each and everyone.RBI supplies fresh notes and coins to the branches and public can obtain the change from any of the prescribed branches.Though RBI has clearly instructed all the banks to supply change irrespective of the account, bank officials made it mandatory to have an account in branches concerned to get change, that is also subjected to availability. “If we allow nonaccount holders, then we have to open many counters to meet the demand,” says an official of Corporation Bank, which has 17 currency chests in the district.Lok Sabha member Suresh Angadi said on Wednesday that he will urge the RBI and the Union Government to intervene in the matter and make change available.