All that glitters... is old in Bangalore

All that glitters may not always be gold. At least, when you have to make do for the lack of availability of gold. N Raghavendra, who was to get his daughter married off last month, realised this the hard way in the backdrop of rocketing gold prices and an ongoing jewellers’ strike. To save face, Raghavendra did something that was far from traditional—he gifted the groom NSCs and a life insurance policy.

Raghavendra had to perforce look beyond tradition. “As the strike was ongoing, we had no other option. I could not put my daughter’s wedding on hold. My wife and I weighed out our options and settled on giving my son-in-law NSCs and a Jeevan Beema policy,” he said. Like him, many others have been taking to a similar recourse.

Balraj MG’s story was a little different. “Every year during this time, I buy some gold jewellery for my daughters and wife. It is a tradition we follow. The shop from which we usually buy our gold is still shut. I am hoping it will open soon and the new rates do not burn a hole in my pocket.”

In pressing cases where families are looking around frantically to buy essential wedding items like mangalsutras and rings, unless one has a longstanding association with a jeweller, they are not willing to entertain requests for orders.

“In emergency cases, we fulfill orders placed by loyal customers as we can’t refuse them. We are obliged to maintain these relationships,” said a jeweller on Jewellers Street.

Barring the rare cases, smaller jewellers in the city are afraid to rebel against the Jewellers’ Association. “We have no choice but to cooperate with the union. If we go against them and face problems later, we will be ostracised,” said Jhaveri, who has been in the business for more than three decades.

Two weeks into the impasse, there are still no signs of the protest being called off. The strike followed Pranab Mukherjee’s proposal to levy excise duty on unbranded jewellery and impose a tax on purchases above `2 lakh, while also doubling the import duty on gold.

The industry is lobbying with the government to scrap excise completely. It is being argued that such a move will rattle the foundations of the industry, affecting the livelihood of numerous self-employed skilled artisans, rendering them jobless.

Bacchraj Bamalwa, chairman, Gems and Jewellery Federation of India, said jewellers across the country were willing to prolong the strike till a favourable outcome was reached. “We are expecting Pranab Mukherjee to offer a feasible solution very soon,” he said, adding that `1,000 crore turnover was being lost every day by the industry.

Jewellers said that although they hoped for a positive outcome through the strike, if their demands were not met, one could expect a sharp dip in sales of gold and silver items in the long run.

This would happen because customers would have no choice but to cut down on purchases to fit their budgets. “A customer who would normally buy 250 grams of gold will now have to settle for about 100 grams,” said a popular jeweller.

Meanwhile, the band of those like N Raghavendra is increasing by the day.