Gold buyers in Kerala braving superstitious beliefs

With gold prices tumbling to a five-year low this week, jewellery shops in Kerala are witnessing brisk sales.
Customers, who had been waiting for the inauspicious Malayalam month of Karkidakom (mid July to mid August) to pass for the festival and wedding shopping, have braved their superstitious belief and are thronging the jewellery outlets across the state.
Purchases that picked up after the price fell below the psychological level of Rs20,000 per eight grammes (one sovereign) in mid July gained momentum by the end of the month when prices dropped below Rs19, 000. The price was Rs18,800 on Friday.
The fall in prices has led to a 25 per cent rise in sales in jewellery shops across the state, according to Kerala Jewellers Federation. Federation president Kalyana Raman said that the current buyers were mostly wedding and Onam festival shoppers. Gold purchases in Kerala peak usually after mid August, when 'Chingam', the first month of the year according to traditional Malayalam calendar begins.
The month, during which the harvest festival of Onam is celebrated, is considered as the most auspicious month for marriages mostly by members of the Hindu community.
The Chingam buyers have advanced their purchases as the present price allows them to buy more gold or save substantial money. A salesman at a leading jewellery shop at Cochin said that the common trend was to buy more gold. Several jewellers have introduced advanced booking facility to lure more buyers.
The scheme allows customers to book gold they need in future at the current price. Kalyan Jewellers are offering booking up to six months. Customers can avail the facility by paying 60 per cent of the price at the current rate.
The steep fall in the prices of the yellow metal has come as a big relief to the customs authorities, who expect that it will bring down smuggling.
There has been no major gold hauls in the three airports in the state in the last fortnight.
Customs officials at Cochin said that a substantial chunk of 4,480kgs of smuggled gold worth Rs11.20 billion seized in the country during 2014-15 came through airports in Kerala. According to available statistics, a total of 547.32 kg of gold was seized at Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut airports during the period and 432 persons arrested in connection with the smuggling.
The Customs had geared up its machinery to meet a surge in gold smuggling in the run-up to Onam. Commissioner of Customs (Preventive) K.N. Raghavan had sought full access in the airport to his personnel to detect smuggling.
They have been finding it difficult to catch the contraband gold as the smugglers have been adopting new methods to smuggle. While they recruited low-paid baggage handlers and corrupt airport staff earlier, now they are even using foreigners.
The smugglers have also been using facilities in the aircraft to stow away contraband gold. Closets in the aircraft, space beneath the seats or inside cabin panels are used to conceal the gold. They are later retrieved with the help of their airport-collaborators.
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• India