JOIN USWhen the rest of the nation was standing in queues outside ATM counters on Tuesday evening, wholesale trader Arvind Jaiswal (name changed) was putting in action a plan that would earn him lakhs.
Using the scheme, he made hay while the sun shone on a slightly chilly day.
A dealer in fruits at Burrabazar in central Kolkata, one of the largest wholesale markets in India, Jaiswal boasted having made nearly Rs 26 lakh between 8 am and 3 pm on Wednesday. The man in his mid-40s had kept aside his legal income of around Rs 3 crore in Rs 100 notes as part of his weekly earning and was readily exchanging Rs 500 denomination notes for Rs 100 notes, albeit at a price.
For every Rs 500 note Jaiswal broke into 100s, he gave away Rs 480, earning for himself a commission — batta in local parlance — of Rs 20. In the day’s course, he claimed to have made a substantial amount in just commission he charged. “Since this is my legal income I’ve nothing to fear when I go to the bank with stacks of Rs 500 notes,” he said with a smile.
Like most traders from the hub, who visit their bank to deposit weekly earnings, Jaiswal goes to the bank every Friday. He admitted there were others also making money in this manner. “At least 100 other traders from Burrabazar made money from batta throughout the day,” he added. Traders involved in batta trading pointed out that they were only exchanging Rs 500 notes.
Anand Agarwal (name changed), another trader from Burrabazar, who also made a killing, admitted that most people having Rs 500 notes broken into 100s were coming with illegal earnings. “I don’t know who decided to start this but anybody with Rs 100 notes were earning batta. Since there were many takers, I jumped in,” he said.