Jewellery industry urges Maha govt to ease lockdown curbs during festive season

The All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council GJC has urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to allow the opening of jewellery retail stores in the state during the festive occasion of Gudi Padwa New Year for Maharashtrians which is an important day for buying wedding jewelleryIn a letter written to the CM on Wednesday GJC said Gudi Padwa is one of the most important festivals for Maharashtra and every year jewellery business witnesses a 3040 per cent spike in salesCurrently thousands of customers have placed orders for the festival which are pending delivery Due to the lockdown and closure of retail outlets the retailers are unable to supply the goods to the customers for Gudi Padwa and their weddings the letter statedGJC represents over six lakh players panIndia comprising manufacturers wholesalers retailers distributors laboratories gemologists designers and allied services to the domestic gems and jewellery industryGJC Chairman Ashish Pethe said Maharashtra especially Mumbai is a major hub for thousands of wholesalers and manufacturers It is also the biggest market for diamond exports and majority of the jewellery across India and globally is supplied from the Zaveri BazaarHe added that Maharashtra also houses lakhs of jewellers and artisans who have migrated from all parts of India The above imposed lockdown will have repercussions on the entire nation and its supply chainGJC has also urged the chief minister to allow jewellers to open stores during Gudi Padwa and other summer harvest festivals such as Ugadi Chaitra Navratri and Jhulelal JayantiThe apex jewellers body also asked the Maharashtra government to allow them to operate during the upcoming wedding season in the AprilJune quarterThe Maharashtra government on Sunday announced a weekend lockdown in the state from 8 pm on Friday to 7 am on Monday in a bid to curb the growing numbers of COVID19 cases in the stateThe new lockdown restrictions Break the Chain imposed from April 5 till April 30Apart from the weekend lockdown strict restrictions will be in force from Monday 8 pm onwards and night curfew will continue and prohibitory orders issued under Section 144 will be enforced during the day time during the weekPethe said the industry is seeing an upward graph but now with new lockdown restrictions in April the livelihood of many craftsmen and selfemployed jewellers will be affected and their families will sufferIn Mumbai the industry does Rs 200300 crore business only from Zaveri Bazaar daily If we calculate the entire state the numbers will be huge and so will be the loss to the industry resulting in job loss of lakh of artisans he told PTIWorld Gold Council India Managing Director Somasundaram P R told PTI that this is a setback as the jewellery business had started crawling back to near normal and retailers were upbeat about the upcoming festive season for Gudi Padwa Udagi and Chaitra NavratriThe gold prices also seemed favourable for the consumers with over 10 per cent drop to Rs 45000 per 10 grams from historic highs of above Rs 55000 However in some pockets due to the rising number of COVID19 cases there is a major clamp down on businesses by the respective state governments he addedSomasundaram also said this has dampened trade sentiment and will definitely impact gold buying However the situation should be better than the same time previous year when the entire country was under strict lockdown he addedWe anticipate good business in southern and northern India where jewellery stores are able to function normally and digital sales are expected to benefit in areas where there are curbs on the retail stores However frequent lockdowns regional or not will hit trade confidence he addedKumar Jain of UT Zaveri told PTI that the situation is bad for the industry as Zaveri Bazaar houses 3000 shops 3500040000 small manufacturing units and small offices where around 225 lakh artisans are employedZaveri Bazaar has completely come to a standstill which is going to create unemployment for the artisans if the restrictions are not eased soon he saidPNG Jewellers Chairman and Managing Director Saurabh Gadgil said the gems and jewellery industry is likely to incur up to Rs 1000 crore loss if the restrictions are not eased in the stateThe situation for the industry is not good as the expenses are going up including rents maintenance salaries of the staff and bank interests taxes among othersMeanwhile the artisans of which 70 per cent have come back from the previous lockdown are thinking of going back to their hometowns Bringing back the artisans is a 23 months process and will affect production This will cost the industry huge loss he addedWHP Jewellers Director Aditya Pethe stated that the organised retail stores are following all the social distancing guidelines like compulsory masks sanitisation limited number of customers in the store as per the square feet of the storeTherefore instead of the lockdown the government can focus on vaccinating people faster while social distancing guidelines are followed more strictly and penalise those who are not following the norms he saidI hope the state government rethinks the lockdown decision otherwise this will severely affect the retail industry and small traders who will not be able to sustain another lockdown and will be forced to go against this decision as it is a question of their survival he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever