Diwali budget for employees remains intact

Corporates, banks and sweet shop vendors said their sale has seen no major deviation from last year. “There has been no budget cuts as far as the Diwali gift budget is concerned. Due to increase in our employee base, the budget had to be increased proportionally to incorporate them. We have planned a week-long celebration and also have a Diwali party scheduled for all our employees,” said Abhay Patil, vice-president, talent management and operation, Harbinger Group.

Terming Diwali as a festival where employee-employer relations are mended, a Bank of Maharashtra official said, “This is the time of the year when employers and employees come together and celebrate. This is an important festival as far as cementing the ties with employees and bettering the office environment is concerned. So we have not introduced any budget cuts for our employees.”

Even sweets and dry fruit whole sale vendors were of the opinion that bulk orders from corporates have not seen any major difference since last year. “We have individual clients as well as corporate clients. As far as the bulk orders are considered which mostly come from banks and corporate houses, there has been no marked difference in the sale value,” said Srikrishna Chitale, owner, Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale. He added, “The orders from big companies keep on coming till the last minute, so it is not possible to get the full fledged

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