GUWAHATI: “It was the worst Diwali for me in the last five years. I was not even able to buy new clothes for my children this year,” said a city-based businessman Rajiv Nath.
Nath, a transport operator who used to have a yearly turnover of around Rs 4 crores, is virtually on way to bankruptcy; since the last two years he even had to mortgage his house to pay off his debts.
Nath’s is not the only story; the business community of Guwahati are a worried lot so far as their earnings are concerned as there is an unpredicted financial crisis being faced by everyone.
A steel utensil wholesaler based in Fancy Bazar, talking to G Plus said, “All the businessmen in Fancy Bazar have been affected and it was seen during this Diwali.” The market is reducing as people are buying less these days; all this started since the demonetisation, the wholesaler expressed.
After demonetisation the Guwahati market witnessed a collapse in business and the trend continues till date as demonetisation woes are clearly still not over and the government implemented unplanned Goods & Services Tax (GST) which has further increased the chaos, said another businessman from Lal Ganesh, Manoj Deb.
For the first time during Diwali there were very less shops selling crackers noticed in Guwahati and the overall business was disheartening.
Every year near the Lal Ganesh temple, there would be around 12 shops selling crackers which come up during Diwali. This year there were only two shops.
The situation was the same in areas like Ganeshguri, Six Mile, Maligaon and Colony Bazar. The wholesalers in Fancy Bazar also claimed that there was around 40% dip in the sale of crackers.
A similar situation was observed in the jewellery market and people purchased less jewellery this year.
Deepika Das, a housewife said, “I did not purchase any jewellery this year during Dhanteras as we are facing some financial crisis.”
