Bhavnagar diamond market calls a strike

Following a sudden change in the trade discount structure imposed by the diamond merchants, diamond market in Bhavnagar went on a sudden strike on Monday afternoon following an episode of stone pelting and glass breaking at few shops associated with the trade in Nirmalnagar area of Bhavnagar.

"This sudden strike has been announced against the instant trade discount percentage introduced without any prior intimation on cash transactions," said Vitthal Mendapara, president of Bhavnagar Diamond Association.

Initially, trade discount provided by the diamond merchants to the processors was ranging between 17 to 18 per cent, which means if a dimond processor goes with his semi-finished product valuing worth Rs.1 lakh, the merchant has to pays around Rs 82,000 to Rs 83,000 to the processor deducting trade discount as imposed in cash transaction.

This discount suddenly shot up somewhere between 21 to 23 percent and as a result, the amount received by diamond processor ranges somewhere between Rs 79,000 to Rs 77,000 resulting bare minimum loss of Rs 3,000 on the lower side in case if the transactions takes place in cash," explained Mendapara.

This apart, there are other issue such as merchants do not pay courier charges, they do not have an appropriate balance scales resulting losses in weights and they gain more profits, more or less at times they also do not make timely payments and keep the processors lingering for their dues, so to address all these issues, the processors have announced uncertain strike, said Mendapara.

Though this is the only business which has kept Bhavnagar's economy vibrant because approximate business turnover of diamond trade in Bhavnagar falls somewhere between Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,250 crores per annum; but with passage of time if such issues continue, there are all possible chances that this business will dies its own death, he added.

However, as the agitations continued, diamond trade fraternity comprising of diamond polishers and diamond processors was all set to give a call of fight to finish, "Dispite the violent crowd, police was no where to be seen. A few shops in nearby locality were damaged in the incident" said Ketan Dhanak, journalist associated with an eveninger newspaper in Bhavnagar.

The strike is likely to continue till the demands are resolved. The diamond merchants fearing further ambushes from processors and polishers on basis of anonymity said, "We are also helpless, as the trade is more or less governed by other external operators and parameters laid by them sitting outside Bhavnagar, we are pure middleman and are compelled to pass on our expenses further on processors or polishers, despite we being interested in working out an amicable business solution, would fail to do so as the parameters of business keep on changing from time to time."