All roads lead to Fancy Bazar

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 13: Wednesday being a holiday on account of Srikrish Janmashtami, the traders at Fancy Bazar in the city got the glimpse of Durga Puja market, as though all roads in the city led people to Fancy Bazar. The congested roads in Fancy Bazar witnessed crowds that made people to use their elbow power.  

Talking to The Sentinel, noted trader in Fancy Bazar Ram Niranjan Goenka said: “The sale is medium. It’s likely to pick up from September 15.”

When asked on GST impact in the business, if any, Goenka said: “We’re still to feel the impact of the new tax regime. I don’t think the common people know it better. I feel the government needs to bring some reforms. At the rate of 5 per cent GST, for a commodity costing Rs 1,000 the GST is Rs 50. However, if the cost of the commodity is Rs 1,050 the GST has to be charged at the rate of 12 per cent. I feel the system has to be made uniform. The more a seller sells the more GST he’ll pay. In fact, the government doesn’t want to gauge the pulses of people.”

Back to puja market, Goenka said: “New garments and clothes do come to the market every year, so is this year. Durga Pujar matters more for the women and girls. There are new design Assamese Jute Sarees from Suwalkuchi this puja season. The prices start from Rs 5,000. New design mekhala chadors are also available in the market.”

Pranita Goswami, an Assamese garment trader owning a shop med Kids Home at Fancy Bazar, said: “Since demonetization garment trade isn’t roaring. This year floods stopped train running for many days, and that prevented us from bringing kids’ garments in accordance with the requirement. I bring garments from Mumbai and Kolkata. The introduction of GST has left us not being able to satisfy our customers, for we have to compute the GST of a garment costing Rs 1,000 and separately for garments costing above it. This is a time-taking exercise which is not suitable, at east during puja eve. The government wants to make cashless transaction a reality. However, when cards are swapped the banks cut the amount from the retailers, not the customers. The sale was much better last year. I’ve zero size garments up to 12 years. For girl kids there are long-size designs.”