The demonetisation of 1000 Rs. and 500 Rs. notes by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being hailed as a surgical strike against black money, and a push for digital money. Although that argument remains open, the fact is that the next few days are going to be quite inconvenient. With a clear majority of online transactions in India taking place on the basis of cash on delivery, many people were wondering how they would pay for their deliveries with the 1000 Rs. and 500 Rs. notes no longer legal tender.
It's something that the various e-commerce companies were also clearly thinking about, because this morning we saw that cash on delivery is being severely limited across the board. Amazon, for example, shows the message: "We have disabled COD for you to save cash for essential payments".
The likes of Amazon India and Flipkart have halted the option of paying for a product using the cash on delivery option. If you are to choose the CoD option on Amazon India, you will get a popup message that reads, “We have disabled CoD for you to save cash for essential payments. Use credit/debit cards, net banking or gift cards to complete your purchase.” Flipkart shows a similar message on orders over Rs 2,000 — “This payment option is not available for this order. Please try some other payment mode.” There is also a banner on the homepage with the caption — “Paying in cash? We are unable to accept Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 notes, further to the government order.”
Snapdeal on the other hand also does the same, but additionally, displays a message reminding people that 1000 Rs. and 500 Rs. notes will not be accepted for deliveries. Kunal Bahl, co-founder and CEO, has already welcomed Modi’s move to stop the use of these notes and believes this is a significant step towards digital economy. “Both Snapdeal and FreeCharge are committed to supporting all such initiatives,” he said.
We tried a few other stores, such as Paytm, which didn't seem to have consistent behaviour. Some items priced at over Rs. 2000 were available for CoD; others priced at under Rs. 500 did not have the option at all. Uber allows for cash payments, but the app reminds users that drivers will not accept 1000 Rs. and 500 Rs. notes.
Grofers appears to be accepting cash, with no warning messages. The same appears to be true for Ola. On the other hand, if you rely on Zomato or Swiggy for your snacking, you'll need to use an electronic payment method, as CoD is being disabled, to "avoid confusion".
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