Goldsmiths suffer losses amid soaring prices

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 5

Soaring gold prices have adversely affected goldsmiths and jewellery shop owners in Kangra district.

Ajay Verma, a jeweller, said the gold price was out of reach of the common man. The price of 10 gm was Rs 54,000 today. “Here, people spend only between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh on jewellery during the wedding of their children and, therefore, they are now more interested in buying silver ornaments.”

He said 300 goldsmiths, most of them from West Bengal, used to work in Kangra. However, many of them had now returned to their native villages and taken up agriculture.

Ajay Verma said jewellers were not getting raw metal from the market. Those who had it were selling the same at high prices. In places such as Kangra, people often gave orders for jewellery to goldsmiths. The gold rate was fixed as per the one prevailing on that day. Due to the volatility of the situation and a sharp rise in gold prices, goldsmiths were incurring losses, he said.

He said people were also facing problems in selling their old jewellery. Ram Kumar Sharma, a resident of Dharamsala, said most jewellers were refusing to purchase old jewellery.

Goldsmiths said they were not accepting old jewellery due to strict rules implemented by law enforcement agencies. “Generally, people do not have papers or bill of the old jewellery. We can’t purchase without these,” said a goldsmith.