visakhapatnam all that glitters will continue to be gold despite the governments proposed move to curb imports of the yellow metal to dampen its demand this especially seems to hold true for jewellers in vizag who do not appear to be too perturbed by union finance ministers p chidambarams recent statements on plans to hike import duty on gold jewellers have their fingers crossed that it will be business as usual for the upcoming wedding season and are optimistic that the proposed move to increase the import duty on gold by nearly two percentage points will not dull the sheen of the yellow metal as it would translate into an increase of only rs 60 per gram explaining the optimism shyam manchukonda proprietor of shyam zaveri said over the last one year gold prices moved from rs 2800 to rs 3290 per gram even when prices reached nearly rs 3300 for 24 carat per gram people continued to buy i dont think the hike in import duty will affect a lot of people observing that the demand for gold has been improving continuously he said people are purchasing gold treating it as an investment option mentioning that south indians have a fascination for gold he said only 10 of investors buy raw gold save it for some time and sell it later but 90 of the sales are in the form of jewellery appalaraju sriranga partner of mvs jewellery feels that gold demand will pick up after january 23 when the wedding season kicks in as the precious metal continues to dazzle gold lovers according to john alukka managing director of jos alukkas despite the prices of gold touching new highs the craze for the yellow metal has not come down just as people have continued investing in skyrocketing land prices they have not shied away from going for gold said alukka pointing out that the average expenditure on gold in any marriage is around rs 10 lakh while those purchasing for nonwedding purposes also spend upto rs one lakh on an average the latest trend he pointed out is temple jewellery udyanam waist belt work and necklaces are gaining popularity college girls are primarily going for lightweight ornaments starting from one gram gold lockets pendants and small nose pieces a clear indicator of the rush for gold is the number of jewellery showrooms mushrooming in the city with several players such as malabar gold jos alukkas joy alukkas and grt now venturing into the steel city to cash in on the yellow metal fever jewellery store owner mouli krishna agrees obviously if any business is doing well people will set up shop sales have been good in the last five to 10 years despite the rise in gold prices as people are happy their purchases will appreciate referring to the probable price hike he said that people had got used to the high prices of gold and that sales would go up during february and march due to heavy