NEW DELHI: You may not find too many Chinese lights and decorative items while shopping for Diwali, this year. Prevailing mood of boycotting Chinese items due to the ongoing tension between India and China and confusion over GST have led to about 40-50% drop in booking of Chinese items this year.
Delhi is a huge market for Chinese goods as they are cheaper. Sadar Bazaar, being the biggest wholesale market of the country, gets flooded with cheaper Chinese items every festive season. Chinese goods— toys, fancy lights, gift items, plastic ware, decorative items—worth `1,000 crore enter the city markets ahead of festive seasons, every year.
Traders in Sadar Bazaar said booking for Chinese items started about four months ago, and this year very less order have been placed. “We have to go by the sentiment. Some stocks of last year are still lying in the warehouses because of boycott of Chinese items by the people. The campaign against Chinese goods will intensify this year due to rise in tension between the two countries,” said Rakesh Yadav, a Sadar Bazaar-based trader.
Traders feel that placing lesser orders is good for country’s manufacturing sector.
Ashwani Mahajan, national co-convener of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said, “The organisation has declared the year 2017 as ‘Year of the boycott of Chinese goods and companies’. In the first phase of this year's campaign, we organised a signature campaign under which more than one crore people pledged to boycott Chinese goods to save the employment of our youth. This signature campaign has received huge support across the country.” Mahajan said his target was to reach out to 2.5 crore people in the next few months.