KOCHI: The lottery sales in the district has suffered another beating after the hike in price on tickets last year.
Covid-19
has again crippled the sale of tickets in the district, affecting the livelihood of thousands of people.
Coronavirus outbreak live updatesAgents attribute poor footfall of people in the city as part of the precautionary measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19, to the dwindling sale of tickets. They hope the business will swing back to action once the Covid-19 issue is over and people throng the city as usual.
The lottery department allots around 6.84 lakh lotteries to the district for sales per day. Earlier, it was around 8.14 lakh. When the price of the ticket was increased from Rs 30 to Rs 40, the sales suffered a dent. The department brought it down to 6.84 lakh.
“Covid-19 is one of the reasons for the poor sale of tickets nowadays. There are other reasons too. The ticket price was increased by Rs 10 and this had affected lottery sales too,” said an official in Ernakulam district lottery office without divulging further details on the dip in sales.
Agents said that they have suffered 50% dip in the sale of tickets following Covid-19. “I used to sell around 600 tickets per day. Now, only 300 tickets are sold. I put together all the unsold tickets enduring loss every day. I hope things will change when people return to the city once Covid-19 is over,” said Sanju S Murali, who runs a lottery agency on Paramara Road.
P S Mohanan, general secretary of Ernakulam district lottery agents sellers and staff union, said many agents and sellers buying tickets from the district office have been forced to stockpile it since there are not many takers.
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