Jewellers resent loss of biz on Akshaya Tritiya

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 17

Jewellers resent loss of business on Akshaya Tritiya due to lockdown. Last year too, due to lockdown, jewellery traders were not able to do any significant business on Akshaya Tritiya.

Pankaj Arora, secretary of the All-India Jewellers and Goldsmith Federation, said there were only two days of Dhan Teras and Akshaya Tritiya in the annual calendar that attract brisk business due to age old beliefs. He said this was the second Akshaya Tritiya that there was negligible trade.

Arora recalled that gold and silver ornament trade worth Rs10,000 crore had taken place in the country on the day of Akshaya Tritiya in 2019 when the price of gold was Rs35,000 per 10 gm. On the day of Akshaya Tritiya in 2020 the price of the same quantity of gold was Rs52,000 and trade of nearly Rs980 crore had taken place across the country. Now, the price of gold is Rs49,000 and pan-India the trade could not cross 20 tonnes.

Holding lockdown responsible for the loss of trade, Piara Lal Seth, chairman of the Confederation of All-India Traders, Punjab, said it was estimated that about Rs10,000 crore trade did not take place on this Akshaya Tritiya.

Although the state government had allowed opening of shops on alternate basis, yet customers did not move out of their houses due to fear of getting infected with virus. He said there were about four lakh gold and silver traders across the country.