Firecracker sales leading up to Diwali festivities saw some improvement following a two-year slump, but shopkeepers at the Kurali wholesale market rued inflated prices, bans on certain varieties of crackers and the imposition of a two-hour window on celebrations for affecting sales.
Blaming the price hike and a curtailed two-hour window for bursting firecrackers in the state for the bringing down sales, Ashok Bathla, a firework wholesaler at the market, said, “The market would witness business of over ₹6 crore each year, but the past two years have been disappointing. Though the shopkeepers won’t suffer losses, the profits are lower than expected. Firecrackers have become really expensive. That, added with the two-hour window to burst crackers has discouraged buyers.”
Vendors said the government’s decision to ban varieties of firecrackers that caused high pollution had also affected the industry.
“In order to emphasise on a ‘green Diwali’, many crackers were banned. From the available choices, sky shot crackers were best-sellers, raking in ₹400 to ₹15,000 from single buyers,” Manik, another vendor, said, pointing out that not many buyers were interested in the mellowed-down green crackers.
Kurali Firecracker Dealers Association president Sunder Lal Manju also criticised the decision to allot licences to a lowly 44 vendors in the district, saying, “This leads to monopoly of firecracker vendors and they sell crackers at inflated rates.”
{{/usCountry}}Kurali Firecracker Dealers Association president Sunder Lal Manju also criticised the decision to allot licences to a lowly 44 vendors in the district, saying, “This leads to monopoly of firecracker vendors and they sell crackers at inflated rates.”
{{/usCountry}}Manju also pointed to an increase in import price of chemicals from the Russia-Ukraine region in the wake of the former’s invasion of the latter nation as a reason behind the hike in the price of the final product, saying, “This has put a lot of financial burden on the customers and has impacted our sales as well.”
Ashid, a customer from Chandigarh, also spoke of the high prices, saying, “I made the long trip to Kurali hoping to getfirecrackers at a reasonable price compared to Chandigarh, but was shocked to see the final bill. The government needs to control the prices of crackers.”
Kurali market supplies firecrackers to Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and various parts of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.