The recent decision of the Reserve Bank of India to ban zero percent interest on purchase of electronic gadgets is going to dampen the shopping spirit of customers this festive season. Traders fear that the sale of electronic products will be affected by this decision.
Opposing this decision of Government, Vipin Nagalia, President of Doon Udhyog Vyapar Mandal, said that this is really demoralising step for the traders. “Zero percent, scheme was profitable for the shopkeepers as it attracted large numbers of customers to their shop. This is a profitable scheme which we introduced every year on different home appliances including refrigerator, TV, washing machine, oven, cooler, mixer grinder, lCD, lED etc during Diwali,” informed Balwinder Singh of Gaylord Emporium at Paltan Bazar.
Zero percent schemes are introduced in association with the finance company, which is responsible for the profit and losses. Jagdish Kumar, a shopkeeper, informed that seeing the festive season various exchange offers have also been introduced on electric items.
He added that customers get about `1500-1700 cash return on exchanging old items.Udit Rana, a great lover of electronic gadgets said that the RBI’s decision is surely going to dilute customer’s interest of shopping. Diwali used to be the best time for the shopaholics to purchase their favourite gadgets.
Zero percent interest, scheme was an attractive and luring one for all such customers who believed in EMI shopping.This shopping mode was considered convenient for a greater number of people. But the recent ban has lessened the interest of people.
According to the government such schemes are mainly meant for alluring and exploiting the vulnerable customers. Notably, government has prohibited this scheme to protect the customers from dubious schemes of the companies.
So, if this ban is going to impact the sale of electronic gadgets then at the same time it will save customers from the camouflaged interest rates charged on different products.