Hyderabad: Despite the world slowly transitioning to digital payments, the tradition of handing over crisp currency notes to children as ‘eidie’ (gift) is unlikely to get affected.
With Eid ul Fitr around the corner, demand for newly printed currency notes has shot up in Hyderabad. As a practice, elders give currency notes as gifts to children on Eid ul Fitr every year after Ramzan.
Children often also ask for gifts from their grandparents followed by other relatives. Whenever they go to extend Eid wishes, elders hand over a few currency notes to children, and many prefer to hand over newly printed currency notes.
“Getting a Rs 10 denomination crispy note was something great during my childhood. Still, the practice is there in my family; the present generation gets a Rs 100 currency note. It is more of a tradition in families,” said Mohd Fareeduddin, who works as a manager at an apparel store.
Traders who exchange soiled notes in Hyderabad are now in great demand because their tribe helps people get new crisp notes of various denominations. They make profits by charging a small commission for the service.
“There is a huge demand for new currency notes in Ramzan. We charge a commission between five to ten percent, it basically depends on the currency,” said a money exchanger from the city who did not want to be named.
This time around, a hundred pieces of new Rs 10 notes (totaling ₹1000) are sold for between Rs 1,300 and Rs 1,400. A 100-piece bundle of Rs 50 notes is sold between Rs 5,400 and Rs 5,600, depending upon the demand and requirements. “There is a shortage of new currency notes in the market. The soiled note exchange counters are given to regular customers,” said Syed Tajuddin, a realtor from Misrigunj.
Banks in Hyderabad also have been flooded with requests from customers to arrange new currency notes. The request started pouring in from the beginning of Ramzan and still continues. “Unofficial restrictions are placed on it, and we are giving only one bundle of new currency notes to customers,” said a bank official at Shahalibanda.
In fact, in front of the Reserve Bank of India at Saifabad, a few agents sit and provide the new notes after collecting a few hundred rupees as commission. “We come early in the morning and queue up before the bank, only then do we get the money. So we should get some remuneration also,” said a woman who exchanges the notes when asked why they collect around Rs. 100 a commission for each bundle.
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