Sales of zakat (a Muslim religious ritual) items such as lungis and saris have got a boost ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, as local industrialists and businessmen moved to share some of their fortunes with the needy, traders say.

They say people usually start buying zakat items after Ramadan 20th day, although the city-dwellers have been on shopping spree since the very first week of the holy month. This time is no exception.

The traders in Motijheel, Gulistan and Mirpur areas have reported brisk business despite higher prices of the items this time. They say a surge in yarn prices in the local market, which has been influenced by the global market, has pushed the prices of those up.

Shirin Akhtar, 50, who helps her husband run Golapi Store in Motijheel, Dhaka's busiest business hub, pointed out that Golapi has bagged the single highest order of 28,000 pieces of sari from an owner of a shopping mall very recently.

Akhtar, hailing from Pabna, has helped run this shop for the last two decades. She hopes to sell 1 lakh pieces of lungi and 1.5 lakh-2 lakh pieces of sari before Eid.

Mostafizur Rahman, a businessman who lives at Mugdapara in the capital, said he has distributed over 500 pieces of shirt, sari and lungi among the poor in his village in Nababganj.

Mozammel Hussain has bought 300 pieces of lungi and sari for distri-bution among the poor in his village Lashkarpur, Munshiganj.

His family always distributes clothes ahead of the festival.

He also pointed his finger at the pricey zakat items, as shop owners charge more citing the hike in yarn prices.

However, the traders say quality costs higher.

Golapi Store sells lungis between Tk 140 and Tk 400 a piece, while the rates of sari range from Tk 160 to Tk 250. It also sells punjabi between Tk 200 and 500, said Akhtar, who buys items from Demra.

She said the number of people handing out clothes as zakat is increasing every year. She admitted the hike in prices: "Each item now costs Tk 20 higher than a year ago due to the rise in yarn prices. We're not manufacturers. We just buy and sell."

Syed Moazzem Hossain, proprietor of Kanak Traders, said the yarn prices force the low-cost cloth manufacturers to buy saris without printing atTk 120 a piece, which was Tk 90 a year back.

Hossain also pointed to the rise in number of the people keen on zakat item distribution.

Kanak Traders has been selling low-cost lungis and saris for the last 37 years. On an average this business house sells 1 lakh pieces of lungi and 2 lakh pieces of sari during Ramadan.

It sells a lungi atTk 120 to Tk500.

The Islamic faith requires a Muslim to give away 2.5 percent of his or her wealth to the poor.

fazlur.rahman@thedailystar.net