Home ›› 16 Sep 2020 ›› World Biz
Belal Hosen in his forties, a former employee of a private company, has been living in the capital with his wife and child for seven years. He has come to a jewellery shop located in New Market to sell a golden necklace of his wife.
When asked Belal Hosen said to have gone to his village home after losing his job due to coronavirus outbreak. He returned to the capital for nearly a month to earn a livelihood. Finding the prospect of getting a job immediately bleak, he has come to sell his wife’s ornament as his entire savings has come to an end. Belal’s case is not a stray incident but it is true of many families. Indebted families are making ends meet by selling golden ornaments due to financial crisis inflicted by the coronavirus.
According to the traders, the jewellery shops now have more sellers than buyers. As a result, the traders are suffering losses. According to Bangladesh Jewellery Samity (BAJUS), their traders have suffered losses amounting to nearly Tk 600 crore in the last five to six months.
Gold traders said that many people are selling gold during the corona in order to meet the expenses. However, some traders opined differently saying that some people are selling gold in order to have a large scale profit as the price of gold has increased by manifolds in the world market.
Different stories of different families in danger are reflected in the story of 55-year-old Ayesha Akthar who came to Baitul Mukarram to sell nearly a bhori of gold consisting of a necklace, earrings and bangles. Ayesha said that she purchased the ornaments nearly twenty-four years back when the price of gold was five thousand taka per bhori. Now, she has come to sell the ornaments due to very high price of gold which she needs to encash.
In the last few months, the price of gold has increased in the world market by breaking records. Maximum price of 22-carat gold in the country was 77,216 taka. Price of gold was stipulated for the last time on 9th September. Accordingly, now the price of per bhori 22-carat gold is 74,008 taka. Besides, each bhori of 21-carat gold costs 70,858 taka, 18-carat gold costs 62,110 taka and gold acquired by traditional method costs 51,788 taka.
Ahmed Rubel, husband of Mitu, lost his job due to coronavirus outbreak. They earned their livelihood with their savings for almost three months. Mitu found it hard to survive with her two children due to expenses incurred by house rent, food and other factors. In order to pay arrear house rent and meet other expenses, Mitu sold her two golden bangles she got as a gift in her marriage.
BAJUS President Enamul Haque said that such large scale selling of personal gold items is unprecedented. He said to The Business Post that in the last two months nearly 20 to 25 thousand families sold different types of gold ornaments. They have not witnessed such a scenario in the past. Many families have paid tuition fees of their kids, house rent and electricity bill by selling golden ornaments. He also commented that many people sold gold hoping to make an extra profit.
As per BAJUS sources, selling of gold has increased by nearly 100 times compared to last year as now nearly 100 persons are selling their gold whereas the figure was one or two on an average last year.
On the other hand, the sale of gold has been reduced by 80 per cent due to gold price hike and also due to cessation of wedding programmes due to coronavirus.
A gold trader of New Market Khairul Bashar said to The Business Post that people are busy to meet their needs for essentials at the expense of luxury due to scarcity of cash in hand. We have a huge target of gold-selling ahead of two Eid festivals. But the selling of gold during the last two Eid was not significant at all. Besides, people are not celebrating events like wedding, birthday, thereby totally halting sale of gold. One or two people turn out to buy gold throughout the day. There are days when there is no sale. But the number of persons thronging the shops for selling their gold has increased by nearly 50 times.
According to the traders, prospective buyers are selling golden ornaments including nose pin, earring, bangles, necklace ranging from one to two ounces to one to two bhoris and even heavy necklace.
However, the buyers get 5 to 7 thousand taka less per bhori due to selling their gold with 20 per cent commission. Nonetheless, the buyers are happy amid the corona-crisis.
According to BAJUS, there are nearly more than 14 thousand jewellery shops across the country registered with them. The BAJUS leaders opined that if the bad patch continues for long many gold traders will be bound to switch over to other categories of business.
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