The Covid-19 has massively dented the business sector in the country. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has painted a gloomy picture as far as the condition of small businesses is concerned. They are massively suffering, it says.
The CAIT has revealed that around 25% of small businesses, that is about 1.75 crore shops, across India are on the verge of closure due to the corona pandemic. What has made their condition more miserable is the fact that both the state and central governments did not come up with any support for them. This will be more disastrous for the country’s economy, said the CAIT.
economy, said the CAIT. “The domestic trade of India is suffering a lot, which is the worst situation of the century, due to Covid-19 that has destroyed the traders with no sign of immediate sign of respite in near future,” said the Confederation of All India Traders.
The Indian domestic trade, which is the largest selforganised sector across the world, is wrongly described as an unorganised sector. It is one of the widest trade networks globally consisting of more than 7 crore traders providing employment to more than 40 crore people and generating an annual turnover of about Rs 60 lakh crore. Nearly more than 8,000 broad categories of items having several different verticals under each broad category are being traded in India. The banking sector has so far failed to provide formal finance to this sector since only 7% of the small businesses are able to obtain finance from banks and other financial institutions. The rest are dependent upon informal sources to meet their financial requirements.
CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said that Covid-19 has sabotaged Indian domestic trade which is currently struggling hard for its survival and facing several onslaughts from every corner. The domestic trade was already suffering due to financial liquidity problems in the pre-Covid period, but the corona pandemic added to the trouble putting massive strain on the businessmen. As a result, the traders are finding it difficult and practically impossible to revive their business, he said. Khandelwal alleged that there was not a single rupee for small businesses in the Rs 20 lakh crore package announced by the Union government and nor did any state government give any financial assistance for small businesses.
What pinches the traders is that all other sectors of economy, even the migrant labour were considered when the financial package was announced but the traders, whom the political fraternity terms as the lifeline of the economy, were utterly neglected. This despite the fact that on one call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the traders played the most critical role in continuing the supply chain across the country so efficiently that there was not even a single instance of scarcity of goods.
‘apathy’ of Central and the state governments will be responsible for closure of 1.75 crore shops in India, which will certainly and significantly add to the spike in the number of unemployment in India. And, this will give a major setback to the Prime Minister’s call for ‘vocal for local’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.
“The traders are under much financial obligation for payment of Central and State government taxes, repayment of monthly instalments of loan taken from formal and informal sources, EMIs, water and electricity bills, property tax, payment of interest, payment of wages to the labour and various other payments,” he said. The CAIT has urged the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take immediate cognisance of the issue of traders and announce a package for traders to help them revive their business.