10-year Low sales this Dhanteras, a Diwali with no spark and no profits: CAIT

New Delhi, Oct 18 (KNN) Despite the peak festive season round the corner, the market registered poor sales, an early assessment by the Confederation of All India Traders informed.

CAIT in a press release said that the slowdown in commercial markets of the country continued even on the day of Dhanteras that is considered as most auspicious day to buy gold or silver jewellary, utensils and kitchenware & appliances on this day.

Earlier, the day of Dhanteras, few days before Diwali used to attract great profits as the day was marked by a lot of customers to buy different items including gold, silver and other items, but this year even this day suffered terribly, CAIT informed.

CAIT said that there is a gloomy atmosphere in sales outlets of these commodities having a very low turn out of people all over the Country.

The statement further said that market observers say that the 2017 sales looks the most disappointed Dhanteras for the traders in light of past ten years.​

There is fear among traders that if the situation persists, there can be an overall loss of 50 per cent due to drop in sales as compared to the previous year.

CAIT said that generally on Dhanteras the rates of Gold and Silver keeps increasing due to the surge in demand but this time the rate remained unaltered. This sector alone registered a drop by over 30-35 per cent.

Citing reasons CAIT informed that the crunch of cash liquidity has disturbed the sales atmosphere. In the post-demonetization the market already showed signs of losses.

This followed by the larger scenario where the agriculturalist suffered losses due to price drop on agri-commodities, ​higher establishment expenses and subsequent  ​increase in working capital of traders & MSMEs, due to which there is an atmosphere of uncertainty prevailing.

Also E Commerce has badly hit the brick & mortar markets. Banks are offering cash-back on card payments for online shopping, Exclusive availability of certain products on E Commerce portals, Support to online trade by brands through advertisements, unethical & unchecked continuous discounted sale by E Commerce portals are some of the major reasons of diversion of offline sales to online​ resulting into low turnout of customers in the markets, the statement added.

Also the complications and confusions around the newly rolled out Goods and Services Tax (GST) had added to the woes of traders, CAIT said.

Traders across the Country fear that the Wedding season that is to begin from 31st October if met with the same fate, the overall economy of the country might end up in shambles. (KNN/DA)