Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, May 7: Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and industry (SCCI) PRW secretary and former vice president of wholesale cloth dealers Anil Modi, in a letter to the central government has stated the plight of small and average traders whose survival chances have been shaken as a result of the lockdown and has appealed for concrete plans to pull them out of their current woes and set them on the slow climb back to normal times.
Modi stated that traders were unable to open their shops and establishments because of the lockdown. But they had to provide for rent of premises, salary and wages of staff, bank loan and interest installments, GST returns, daily expenses besides lending help to social causes during these times of calamity.
�It is true that traders are helping out, sharing the pains of people but there is none to share their (traders�) pains. Cloth and garments� merchants stock up depending on occasions and seasons but their investments and efforts have gone in vain as both, Eid and the engagement seasons sales could not take place because of lockdown,� said Anil Modi.
The SCCI PRW secretary said the worst affected were the small and medium traders for whom survival is under threat. He appealed to the central government to formulate clear and effective plans for these traders. He suggested that such plans should include waiver of bank loan installments and GST returns and to provide instant soft loans so that the traders are able to breathe again.