After dismal sales during Shraadh in Maharashtra, it is now time for 'Kamurta' to strike in Gujarat. During this one month, lasting December 15 to January 15 in the Hindu calendar, the IT business in the state witnesses a sharp drop as the SOHO and end-user community consider it an inauspicious period to make any purchases. 

The IT business at Gujarat is mainly dependent on these two customer segments. Though corporate sales are still continuing, business is largely affected due to Kamurta. 

Generally the Gujarat IT market registers good sales during Diwali, but it goes down after the festive season. However this year, some partners feel that business has dwindled during the Diwali period itself. 

Rajkot-based Harish Virani, CEO of Netlink Infocom said, “Compared to the last year, this Diwali we witnessed a drop of 50% in business. Now after Diwali, we are in Kamurta period and our business is now down by almost 70%.” 

Similarly Ahmedabad-based Sanjay Tayal of Emerald Infocom, said, “We have been witnessing a slack in the business pre- and post-Diwali this year. Now our sales have dropped down considerably because the SOHO users don't believe in making purchases during Kamurta.”

Some of the partners have accepted that sales will drop during and that nothing can be done about it. Ankleshwar's Mahesh Sabalpara of Radha Computers said, “This is a regular phenomenon every year. We are prepared for this drop in our sales and accept the fact that there won't be good business till January 15.” 

Similarly RG Patel, President of Ahmedabad Computers Merchants Association (ACMA) noted, “Home users form a major chunk of buyers at Ahmedabad and hence like every year, this time too there has been a visible drop in IT business during Kamurta.”

Unlike the other cities of Gujarat, Surat has two-fold problems during this period. The client list of the city's SOHO segment mainly includes diamond merchants, who are into exports. Since the Christmas vacation begins after December 25, the export business comes to a standstill. Which in turn means that exporters do not make any IT purchases either.

Paresh Babaria of Surat's Jupiter Automation, said, “Besides Kamurta, our business comes to standstill also due to the holiday season in the European and American markets. Since our clients, who are into diamonds exports, face a slack in their business, they do not make any purchases during the period. So, like every year, we know that we wouldn't get any business till January 15.”

This is a typical yearly phenomenon and though partners are affected by it, they have now learnt to take it in their stride.

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