Jewellery outlets, small and big, remained shut on Friday because of the lockdown restrictions on Akshaya Tritiya day.
This is the second year when there is no special sales at the outlets for Akshaya Tritiya.
B. Muthuvenkatram, president of Coimbatore Jewellery Manufacturers’ Association, said there are no e-commerce delivery services because of the lockdown and there are several challenges in selling gold jewellery online. Hence, the jewellers did not go in for online sales.
Usually, the sales on Akshaya Tritiya day used to be nearly 30% higher than normal days. The number of customers purchasing jewellery will be very high. However, for these two years there is no sales for Akshaya Tritiya, he said.
Coimbatore Jewellers Association president B. Sabarinath said that last year there was lockdown since March-end and hence, the retail outlets were aware that there will be no sales for Akshaya Tritiya.
This year, they did not anticipate the lockdown.
“Sales used to be even 10 times higher on this day compared to normal days. With the lockdown, goldsmiths are affected as they have no work. If the lockdown is extended even for a week, the government should support the goldsmiths and the workers at the smithies,” he said.
The workers want to return to their home States and the goldsmiths and manufacturers are persuading them to stay back, he added.
Mr. Muthuvenkatram said he has written to a bank, where most of the manufacturers have accounts, to offer loans at the Repo rates as a special concession during the pandemic period.
