Hyderabad: In a bid to lure customers, gold merchants in the city are offering Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 discount on purchases of gold with cash payments.
A few jewellers are also offering to bear VAT in case of cash payments and advising customers to desist from card transactions to avoiding transaction charges up to two per cent.
On Thursday, the gold price was Rs 28,950 per tola, but many jewellers offered gold at Rs 28,000 per tola in cases of cash transactions.
The manager of a prominent jewellery store in the city, seeking anonymity, said jewellers were offering these incentives to overcome the cash crunch.
“We don’t have any problem with small transactions with cash like purchases of one tola or lesser gold. But, in cases of big transactions from Rs 1 lakh and above, our cash is being held in banks in cases of card payments and banks are allowing us to withdraw only up to Rs 2 lakh. A few banks are implementing rationing system in withdrawals due to cash crisis and when we try to withdraw Rs 2 lakh, the cap, they ask us to withdraw only Rs 50,000 due to non-availability of cash. Why should we suffer when we want to withdraw our money?” he asked.
S. Sathish, a goldsmith from Shadnagar, said there would be no loss to jewellers despite these discounts. “Customers think that they are getting Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 cash back. But, they don’t observe the wastage charges, which will be about 16 per cent against 10-11 per cent. The wastage charge will cover the discount offered by jewellers,” he said.
