CAIT: Chhath Puja festival sees Rs 8,000 crore business

financialexpress.com:

Chhath Puja Sale: Following the Diwali festive week, the Chhath Puja festival has recorded trade worth more than Rs 8,000 crore for retailers, the traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said. Celebrated in Bihar, Jharkhand, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Orissa, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and other states, the festival is among the biggest celebrations of Indian folk culture starting from Nahay-Khay and ending at Paran.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal and President BC Bhartia said that while fruits, flowers and vegetables were sold on a large scale for the festival, clothes, sarees, garments, food grains, flour, rice, pulses and other food items, along with vermillion, betel nuts, small cardamom and puja items, coconut, mango wood, earthen stove, desi ghee, etc., were purchased by people.

Importantly, CAIT had reported Rs 3.75 lakh crore trade during this year’s Diwali season with 13 per cent food and grocery spending, 9 per cent jewellery spending, 12 per cent in textiles and garments, 4 per cent in dry fruits, sweets and Namkeen, 3 per cent in home decor, 6 per cent in cosmetics, 8 per cent in electronics & mobiles, and more.

According to the traders’ body, the purchase of Indian products also cost Chinese goods trade loss worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore. “In previous years, Chinese products occupied nearly 70 per cent market of Diwali festivals. However, this year, the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make this Diwali vocal for local has gone down well and widely accepted and implemented by both traders and consumers,” Bhartia and Khandelwal had said in a statement last week.

Following the festive season, the upcoming wedding season beginning