Experts feel that note shortage, coupled with high gold price may hit Akshaya Tritiya sales
Cash crisis could be a major factor affecting purchase of gold or jewelry by rural folks on Akshaya Tritiya on Wednesday, said jewelers. However, this may not be the case with urban buyers, who are comfortable with digital transactions. High prices of gold would determine the footfalls and actual buying, say experts.
Jewelers catering to rural customers are concerned with the prevailing shortage of cash in rural areas have resulted in lower selling price of kharif crops. This would lead to low farm income and is likely to directly reflect upon the demand for gold and jewelry, say a section of jewelers in Ahmedabad. "Cash shortage can have a severe impact on demand of gold and jewelry from rural areas. This section of society is still not comfortable with digital transactions. They rely only on cash as it is tangible. The rumours that banks will not return the deposits of customers has also made people worried whether they will get their cash or not," said Chinubhai Shah, president of Shree Choksi Mahajan — Manekchauk. The fact that branded jewelry chains are forced to offer discounts is a testimony that demand is subdued, said Shah.
However, Manoj Soni, director of AB Jewels said that shortage of cash, either with the banks or with the customers, is not a bottleneck as people are now habituated to cashless transactions. "We accept cheques and credit or debit cards. Buyers are also increasing using these modes for buying gold and jewelry," said Soni. He is also concerned that high prices of gold may put some spanner in the sentiments on Akha Trij (Akshay Tritiya). "Global factors like the crisis in Syria are driving prices in India. There are marriages, there are festive occasions. So people will continue to buy gold as gold has a global appeal and protects your capital as well," he said.
"It is time to disburse loans to farmers and we are working with GoI and RBI to infuse liquidity. Farmers insist that they be paid in cash at market yards. For past 7 days we have been receiving complains of shortage of currency notes"
Nitin Patel, deputy chief minister and state finance minister
"People fear their money will be lost to scams and are withdrawing their savings. The govt has created an artificial shortage to prevent withdrawals. Recently, I was not able to withdraw cash from ATMs in Delhi, Mumbai and Junagadh"
Paresh Dhanani, leader of opposition
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