CAIT estimates retail losses to be Rs 19 lac crore

New Delhi, Sep 5 (KNN) The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has estimated that COVID-19 pandemic has cost a loss of about Rs 19 lakh crore to India's retail trade in the past five-months.

The traders' body said that these estimates are collected from figures received from 20 major cities in various states.

CAIT also appealed to both centre and state governments to take immediate cognisance of the current situation of the trading community and take necessary steps to restore business activities.

''If 20 per cent shops in the country have to be closed then it will greatly impact the national economy and largely to revenue of states which will certainly disturb the government budget,'' CAIT said.

Consequently, CAIT appealed to Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman to advise banks "not to charge any interest or penalty from traders for the time being".

"If the government can condone the loans of certain sectors, we the traders of India are simply demanding to off load us from bank interests and other liabilities for the time being," CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said.

According to Khandelwal, the pandemic has resulted in great turmoil for domestic trade to the extent that even after 'Unlock-4', traders across the country are "highly depressed".