CHENNAI: A few days after jewellers from Coimbatore complained about the severity shown by the ECI squads, office-bearers of the Tamil Nadu Jewellers Federation, a statewide body of 83 jewellers association, knocked on the doors of Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo on Thursday to apprise him about the frequent incidents of poll officials detaining vehicles carrying jewellery, resulting in a lot of hardships to them.
The jewellers also urged the CEO to direct the EC officials on the field to check for legitimate documents and not to detain the vehicles for many days since without the movement of goods from one place to another, the business cannot be done. They also pointed out that the jewellery business in the state involves around Rs 5 lakh jewellers, manufacturers and goldsmiths.
Talking to reporters after submitting a representation to the CEO at the secretariat, Jayantilal Challani, the president of the Jewellers & Diamond Traders Association Madras, said their trade has come down by 50% after the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections came into effect. One of the conditions in the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) says people are not allowed to carry cash more than Rs 50,000. He said a sovereign of gold costs Rs 50,000 and the customers have to carry cash from small towns to big cities for purchasing gold for marriages and other functions. The election officials should check the genuineness of the people carrying the cash and allow them to carry out their purchases.
“We have a few authorised precious goods vehicles that carry insured parcels with all necessary documents between jewellers and between branches of jewellers. When the authorities detain the entire vehicle for four or five days with all valuables inside, the traders will land in great hardship as the stock prices are very high and withholding them for a long time increases the working capital costs of both jewellers and manufacturers besides disrupting the delivery schedule to the customers,” he said, adding that since the Akshaya Tritiya day on May 10 is fast approaching, jewellers are preparing their inventory for the sales on that day.
The Coimbatore Jewellery Manufacturers Association, on March 25, complained to the CEO about the severity shown by EC officials to the jewellers.
“If this continues, we will be forced to close down our shops for around 50 days when the MCC is in force and about 1 lakh families will be affected,” the association said and added that even if the jewellers produce valid documents for the gold and jewellery they transport, the EC officials hand over the jewellery to the Income Tax department.
“We have availed huge amounts as loans from the banks, and if the situation persists, how can we repay the loans? The officials can collect the supporting documents with the declaration and the principal manufacturer and the traders should be allowed the traders to move with the goods for further business,” the association said.
Trade dips by 50%
The jewellers said their trade has come down by 50% after the code of conduct for the LS polls came into effect