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Lockdowns dash last hopes of Jewellery traders of sales on Akshya Tritiya & Eid

Updated: May 13, 2021 11:27:37am
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Lockdowns dash last hopes of Jewellery traders of sales on Akshya Tritiya & Eid

New Delhi, May 13 (KNN) The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said that jewellery traders will again suffer loss on Akshya Tritiya and Eid as they see no business on these occasions due to COVID pandemic.

''Tomorrow, on May 14, the festival of Akshaya Tritiya and Eid will be celebrated across the country, but there is a lot of disappointment among the jewellery traders across the country because the highest amount of gold and jewellery is sold on the day of Akshya Tritiya every year,'' CAIT said.

BC Bhartia, National President and Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT, said coincidentally, the festival of Eid is also celebrated tomorrow and the jewellery trade across the country will also suffer the additional loss of trade of gold jewellery on Eid.

''It will be the second consecutive year for the jewellery traders to remain under lockdown on Akshya Tritiya festival which is considered very auspicious for gold and jewellery trade in India. Last year also due to the lock down, the jewellery traders were not able to do any significant business and this year also due to the lock down, the jewellery shops are closed on account of the lock down in the majority of the states of the country,'' they added.

 Pankaj Arora, National Convener of All India Jewellers and Goldsmith Federation (AIJGF), the country's top jewellery trade organization said that this year jewellery traders across the country had set high hopes for good business on Akshaya Tritiya but the lock-down has rekindled their expectations and it seems that tomorrow's Akshaya Tritiya and Eid festival day will not be a special trade for gold and jewellery traders in the country.

 Arora further said that in the year 2019, there was a sale of more than Rs 10 thousand crores on Akshya Tritiya but last year on the same day due to lockdown in the country on the Akshaya Tritiya, the sale of gold restricted to only 5 per cent amounting to approximately Rs 500 crores.

''Having Akshya Tritiya under lockdown period for two continuous years, the gold and jewellery trade has suffered a big setback. The biggest concern of the traders is as to how they would be able to restore routine business at a time when they are undergoing an acute financial crisis. On the other hand, the government has implemented compulsory hallmarking on all gold items from 1st June,2021 and jewellery trade is not ready and the hallmarking structure is also not available all over the country,'' he added.

Both CAIT and AIJGF have urged the central government to extend this date for a suitable period.

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