After opening two company-owned stores in India in April of last year, Apple encountered an unforeseen obstacle: many consumers wanted to pay with cash. As a result, the creator of the iPhone installed currency note counting machines in both the Delhi and Mumbai locations.

According to people with knowledge of the situation, payments for 7-9% of the American company's sales in the two stores in India are made with cash, compared to less than 1% or even nil in its stores in the US or Europe, where customers continue to pour in with wads of notes to purchase computers or mobile phones.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that consumers frequently ask questions on the social question-and-answer website Quora about whether they may buy with cash at Apple stores in India.

According to one of the unidentified customers, there are more people purchasing Apple items with cash at the Delhi shop than in the Mumbai store.

The two Indian locations are directly accountable to the US Apple retail team rather than the Apple India sales department, and their sales are recorded in the worldwide books. It wasn't until close of business that ET received a response to its emails to Apple.

Although the government has established a cash transaction restriction of ₹2 lakh per person per transaction, per day, per event, and per occasion since 2017 in an effort to promote digital payments and curb illicit money, Apple is not the only company facing difficulties with cash payments in India.

According to an ET story from last month, the amount of cash in circulation in the nation more than quadrupled to ₹35.15 lakh crore in March of this year from ₹13.35 lakh crore in March of 2017. This indicates the importance of cash as a medium of exchange.

According to the most recent statistics from the National Payments Corporation of India, this occurred in spite of a spike in digital payments made through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which increased from ₹2,425 crore in March 2017 to ₹19.64 lakh crore by the end of April this year.

15-20% of automobiles sold in India, according to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), are self-funded. A quarter of transactions, even for luxury cars, are made directly to customers, who pay ₹2 lakh in cash up advance. Clients can use debit cards, bank drafts, account payee checks, electronic clearing systems, bank accounts, net banking, or any other electronic method to settle the remaining sum.