Soaring gold prices, slow market dampen Diwali sales as Ludhiana jewellers put onus on govt policies
According to the city jewellers, they are facing a slowdown of over 50%
The soaring gold prices coupled with the slump in market has adversely affected the jewellers — this festival season — as they rue losses owing to slowdown with a decline in their clientele.
According to the city jewellers, they are facing a slowdown of over 50%.
A visit to the jewellery showrooms here revealed the visible absence of the usual glitter from market as mostly salespersons were sitting idle with limited customers.
Blaming the government policies leading to increase in gold prices, one of the city jewellers said there was not much difference in the sale of silver also compared to previous years.
“On the occasion of Dhanteras, people mostly prefer buying gold and silver items, however, this time, residents purchased silver coins that too weighing 10 or 20gm, only for the sake of rituals. People are not spending much on these items,” said president of Jewellers’ Association Ludhiana, Anand Sikri.
“The sale of gold and related items has witnessed a 60% fall compared to last season. The gold prices increased to ₹39,600 per 10 gram after the government increased the import duty,” Sikri said.
“Earlier, the central government had announced 10% import duty + 3% GST on gold during budget, but it was increased to 12.5% which led to soaring of the gold prices in turn affecting the sales as residents are waiting for the prices to fall,” he said.
Festive offers fail to lure customers
“The festive offers such as no making charges or discount on the making charges, free gold coins on purchase of certain amount of gold jewellery have also failed to lure the customers,” he said.
“There is no flow of money in the market. People have limited their expenses to buy essential products,” said owner of Standard Jewellery Pankaj Aggarwal.
“The jewellers were pinning hope on the festival season but the footfall is less compared to previous year. Despite weddings also round the corner, the market is lean,” said Meenu Paul from Le Khanna Jeweller.
