CHENNAI: Jewellers across the city were given a good reason to breathe easy on Akshaya Tritiya. Their busiest day of the year, Akshaya Tritiya passed with customer turnouts above expectations. The day, considered auspicious for the purchase of gold, had gained much greater significance this year in the light of new taxes imposed on the sector in the Union Budget.The jewellery sector has been locked in discussions with the government ever since the Union Budget was presented in Parliament on March 16, and industry insiders have been making doomsday predictions ever since. They had feared that the steep increase in prices over the past year, coupled with the new taxes, would have a devastating effect on their fortunes.But all of this proved wrong on Tuesday. “Sales have reached at least the level we saw last year. This is a very good sign for us, that we have been able to match last year’s sales despite the fact that prices are 35 per cent more than last year,” said All India Gems and Jewellers Trade Federation regional chairman N Anantha Padmanabhan.He noted that Akshaya Tritiya was characterised mostly by household buyers making small purchases, and that the trend had not been broken this year. The healthy turnout itself is being seen as an affirmation in industry circles, but there is still a dark lining to this golden cloud, the way some see it. “There may not be anything to rejoice. We have come close to last year’s numbers, but that is only because of the belief in the auspiciousness of Akshaya Tritiya. This means most of the purchases made on this day are emotional. The outlook is still very bleak for the rest of the year, when logic-driven purchases are expected to see a steep fall,” said the owner of one of major jewellery stores on T Nagar’s Usman Road.
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