Written by: Express News Service
2 min readMay 13, 2013 02:48 AM IST
First published on: May 13, 2013 at 02:48 AM IST
Though traders in Mumbai have withdrawn their strike against local body tax (LBT) a day ahead of Akshay Tritiya,the auspicious day that traditionally registers tremendous business activity,their counterparts in Pune are in no mood to follow suit.
With the traders adamant to continue with the strike,the jewellery shops in Pune are set to suffer a loss of as much as Rs 350 crore on the day of Akshay Tritiya,according to the Maharashtra Jewellers’ Association.
Fattehchand Ranka,president of the association and treasurer of the Federation of the Traders’ Union that is spearheading the current protest against the implementation of LBT,said: “I have been in this business for decades and it is for the first time that I would see shops closed on the day of Akshay Tritiya. This shows how angry the traders are about the unjust imposition of LBT. The traders are protesting despite suffering losses to the tune of lakhs and crores.”
There are around 1,700 jewellery shops in the city,and each shop on an average collects Rs 20 to 25 lakh on Akshay Tritiya,which is considered an auspicious day to buy gold.
“Thus,we can conservatively say that the jewellers community in Pune will lose a total revenue of around Rs 350 crore tomorrow,” said Ranka.
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