Maharashtra: Lockdown to impact jewellery sales on Gudi Padwa

The weekend lockdown and restrictions imposed in Maharashtra to curb rising Covid cases will impact jewellery sales on Gudi Padwa, the New Year for Maharashtrians and Konkanis, that falls on April 13. Like Akshay Tritiya, Gudi Padwa is an auspicious day to them to purchase gold as a mark of good fortune and prosperity.

Amid a massive surge in Covid-19 cases in the state, Maharashtra government on Sunday imposed complete lockdown next weekend from 8 pm on Friday to 7 am on Monday. Along with that, the state government also has extended the night curfew in the state. The night curfew will be put in place from 8 pm to 7 am.

Jewellers were expecting good sales during Gudi Padwa as gold prices have fallen to Rs 45,000 per 10 gm from a Rs 51, 000 per 10 gm in the beginning of the year, a drop of almost 12 per cent. Jewellers rued that the government chose to clamp another lockdown and put other restrictions in place when it should have fast paced the vaccination process and kept a close eye on violation of Covid protocols.

“It is being described as a mini lockdown, but for us the reality is that it is a proper complete lockdown. Business had slowly started creeping up back to normalcy and now we have this, and it is definitely bad for sales. Hopefully we will be able to break the chain and contain Covid, and going forward things will get back to normal and business will improve,” said Ishu Datwani, founder of Mumbai’s Anmol Jewellers.

The new year had started on a good note and the jewellers had witnessed ‘normal’ consumer behaviour. But the market again stirred up from mid-March as the Covid cases rose and created uncertainty among consumers. Unless there was a wedding in the family or some important occasion, consumers were not stepping into the mall-based stores and were preferring standalone stores or purchase online.

“This was an unwarranted lockdown. As a businessman, I feel that it does not make any sense to shut economic activities to break the chain of Covid19. It could have been better to shut just recreational facilities. In fact, they didn’t need to reopen the same in the first place. After a great amount of effort, businesses were on the road to recovery and the momentum had finally started building up since the new year with a sense of normalcy,” said Snehal Choksey, director of another Mumbai-based jewellery firm, Shobha Shringar Jewellers.

“We could have just increased the pace of vaccination. Gudi Padwa is round the corner, which will be impacted even though customers will buy online or book over calls,” he added.

Courtesy: Economic Times