Credit and finance for MSMEs: The two-day (October 22 and 23) festival of Dhanteras generated an overall estimated business of over Rs 45,000 crore including around Rs 25,000 crore business done by jewellers across the country, according to traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). The remaining around Rs 20,000 crore of business was generated in automobiles, computer and computer-related goods, furniture, items needed for home and office decoration, sweets and snacks, kitchen items, utensils, electronics, and mobile items categories, it said.
CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said excessive footfall in markets across the country on two days shows eagerness among people to buy Indian goods from offline markets.
“CAIT estimates that this year Diwali festival sales figure will cross Rs 1.50 lakh crores in the country. The other bright face of the festivity relates to the priority of consumers to purchase only Indian goods which have caused a business loss of Rs 75,000 crores to China,” Bhartia and Khandelwal said in a statement.
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Pankaj Arora, National President, All India Jewellers and Goldsmith Federation, an associate organization of CAIT, said that the Indian gold industry has fully recovered from the Covid crisis as the demand for gold in India has reached its highest level.
“India’s gold demand grew by up to 80 per cent in the domestic market in the July-September quarter following a strong pick-up in economic activity and improved consumer demand. Gold import in India has decreased by about 11.72 per cent in 2022 as compared to 2021. Last year, where India imported 346.38 tonnes of gold in the first half, it was now 308.78 tonnes, which was compensated by the reserve stock of the crisis arising out of the Corona period,” said Arora.
According to CAIT, traders and retailers had done business of Rs 1.25 lakh crore in Diwali sales last year along with a business loss of over Rs 50,000 crore to China amid call to boycott Chinese goods.