Sale of Zakat clothes dull
Friday, 12 October 2007
Naim-Ul-Karim
Wholesalers of low-priced clothes meant for distribution as 'Zakat' are going through a dull business as their sales have plummeted by nearly 50 per cent, market sources said.
They said this year the wholesalers at the city's Islampur, Bangabazar, Islamiya Market, Urdu Road and Sadarghat area and Chawkbazar have stockpiled their products including sarees and lungis but lack of buyers have put them in a difficult situation.
"We have missed about 50 per cent of our regular customers including politicians and businessmen who used to place orders directly to them for large quantities of sarees, lungis, panjabees, T-shirts and other clothes," a wholesaler lamented.
He said in the last two decades this is for the first time that wholesalers have gained such a bitter experience in their sales of zakat clothes.
A wholesaler said: "I paid Tk 1.0 million in advance to owners of some handloom to produce zakat sarees at lower price during Ramadan."
"Lower sales volume will hardly be able to sustain my loan repayment," he added.
Painting a similar view, another wholesaler of lungi said there is no big order from political leaders like those of the previous years.
He said: " This year I received orders for only 0.2 million pieces of lungis whereas I supplied more than 0.5 million pieces last year."
When asked, market sources said members of parliaments (MPs), commissioners of city corporations, MP candidates, businessmen and some senior government officials, among others, were the prospective customers.
A wholesaler in the city's Bangabazar said: "In the last two decades, for the first time I did not receive any phone call from one of my regular and valued clients who used to ask me every year during the Ramadan to provide 10,000 pieces of T-shirts with a monogram of his political party."
Market sources said lower sales in wholesale shops have also affected the business of others in the city.
Wholesalers of low-priced clothes meant for distribution as 'Zakat' are going through a dull business as their sales have plummeted by nearly 50 per cent, market sources said.
They said this year the wholesalers at the city's Islampur, Bangabazar, Islamiya Market, Urdu Road and Sadarghat area and Chawkbazar have stockpiled their products including sarees and lungis but lack of buyers have put them in a difficult situation.
"We have missed about 50 per cent of our regular customers including politicians and businessmen who used to place orders directly to them for large quantities of sarees, lungis, panjabees, T-shirts and other clothes," a wholesaler lamented.
He said in the last two decades this is for the first time that wholesalers have gained such a bitter experience in their sales of zakat clothes.
A wholesaler said: "I paid Tk 1.0 million in advance to owners of some handloom to produce zakat sarees at lower price during Ramadan."
"Lower sales volume will hardly be able to sustain my loan repayment," he added.
Painting a similar view, another wholesaler of lungi said there is no big order from political leaders like those of the previous years.
He said: " This year I received orders for only 0.2 million pieces of lungis whereas I supplied more than 0.5 million pieces last year."
When asked, market sources said members of parliaments (MPs), commissioners of city corporations, MP candidates, businessmen and some senior government officials, among others, were the prospective customers.
A wholesaler in the city's Bangabazar said: "In the last two decades, for the first time I did not receive any phone call from one of my regular and valued clients who used to ask me every year during the Ramadan to provide 10,000 pieces of T-shirts with a monogram of his political party."
Market sources said lower sales in wholesale shops have also affected the business of others in the city.