the goan I network
PANAJI
The auspicious festival of Dhanteras brought a smile on jewellers' faces, as quite a good number of customers turned up at their shops to buy jewellery.
Traditionally, Dhanteras is considered to be an auspicious day for people to buy gold jewellery and this time too it was no different.
However, before Dhanteras, jewellers were battling a slowdown on account of reasons like weak economy. Therefore, this festival brought a revival of sorts in their fortunes. Few jewellers were also offering discounts to attract customers.
Vikram Verlekar, owner of Ulhas Jewellers, said, "The response of customers was excellent on the day of Dhanteras. After a long gap, jewellers are seeing demand. Today was good. The demand was picking up few days before, but, it really peaked on Dhanteras."
Verlekar continued, "Both the factors played their part. One, Dhanteras is considered to be auspicious for buying gold jewellery. Two, we were offering attractive discounts. For example, we were giving 25% discount on the making cost of gold jewellery, besides offering 6% off on the price of gold coin. We were also offering 10% discount on diamond jewellery."
Jewellers have been bearing the brunt of weak demand for a while now. Few days back, the central government had removed the condition that jewellers with annual turnover of more than Rs 2 crore have to ask for identity proof of customers for all purchases above Rs 50,000. This too has brought some kind of normalcy back in the sector.
Meanwhile, other jewellers also reported a spurt in demand of jewellery on the occasion of Dhanteras. Swapnil Walke, owner, Krishni Jewellers in Margao, said, "The day was good for us from business viewpoint. Since Dhanteras is an auspicious day, people hold on to their plans and finally purchase jewellery on this particular day."
