Coronavirus: India’s retail trade lost business worth Rs 9 lakh cr in the last 60 days, says CAIT

Nitin Naresh May 25, 2020

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The country’s retail trade lost business worth Rs 9 lakh crore over the last 60 days, mainly due to the nationwide lockdown to contain spread of the coronavirus, trader’s body CAIT said on Sunday.

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said domestic trade is facing its worst period as shops and commercial markets across the country since last Monday could register only about 5 percent of business, and only 8 percent of workforce could resume their duties in shops after migration of about 80 percent employees to their native places.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said during the span of 60 days of national lockdown, the domestic trade has lost a business to the tune of about Rs 9 lakh crore, causing a revenue loss of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore to both the central and state governments on account of GST.

The traders are facing acute financial crunch, and in absence of any policy support from the government, they are worried about future of their business, he said.
Earlier this month, CAIT urged the government to reconsider the economic package and announce measures to support traders, saying the community feels let down by exclusion from the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus to aid the economy reeling from the COVID-19 crisis.
The traders’ body “resented with deep regret” that one of the largest and most committed segments of the trading community has not found a place in the wide-reaching announcements of the economic package, according to a statement.

However, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which has 40,000 trade associations and seven crore members across India, said the trading community will continue to fulfill its obligations towards the nation during the coronavirus pandemic.

CAIT has shot off a communication to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, requesting her to reconsider the economic package. It has sent similar communications to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, and Textile Minister Smriti Irani.

Source: Yourstory