Demonetisation badly affects animal trade in the annual Sonpur Cattle Fair

Demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has badly affected the annual animal trade at Asia's largest cattle fair in Sonpur, Bihar. Both the buyers and sellers are in a dilemma because of nonavailability of adequate cash after demonetization.
In fact, many of them are afraid that they would come under the lens of the taxmen if they fork out money for purchase of pure bred horses and other animals where such horses can cost upwards of Rs 3 lakh.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 19 November 2016.

The worst affected are the cow and buffalo traders because sales have dipped by more than 50 per cent owing to cash shortage. Similar is the case of sheep and horses.
A cow trader had brought more than 1,600 cows and buffaloes but, because of a cash crunch, he could sell only 200 of them. Sales are conducted by cash and not through cards. AS a prospective buyer explains - he has come from Uttar Pradesh to buy cows but, the sellers are asking to be paid in new notes. There is a cap on withdrawing money from banks and, the ATMs are almost running dry.
A horse trader says that he used to sell 30 to 40 horses every year but,this year, he managed to sell only five to 10 horses out of the 2,100 that have been brought.
There are no takers for sheep either - nearly 350 sheep and goats are lined up at the fair and, so far, only 10 have been sold.
Incidentally, the fair lost its sheen when a ban was imposed on the trade of elephants in 2015 - the ban was in the wake of a complaint registered by Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi. While elephant trade was the chief attraction at the fair with no less than 250 pachyderms being brought to Sonepur from across Bihar and other states, the number has dwindled to double digits over the past few years and, this year, only 15 elephants could be seen.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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