Domestic trade in India has lost over 150 lakh crore in past 15 days: CAIT

The retail trade in India has suffered a loss of over 150 lakh crore over the past 15 days, according to estimates by domestic trade organisation Confederation of All India Traders CAIT.

The estimates from CAIT indicate that various businesses in the country lost 50 per cent of their revenues since the past 15 days due to various restrictions imposed by the state governments.

The authorities in the centre and state administrations have been urged by the CAIT to allow smooth conduct of business activities, in addition to putting adequate restrictions on curbing COVID cases in the country.

The trade body has criticised the odd-even guidelines of the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi, saying that it has proved to be a futile exercise, restricting business activities to only 2 -- 3 days a week in the national capital.

The trade of Delhi is slowly shifting to other states because of the centuries old distributive character of Delhi trade. Nearly 5 lakh traders from other states are visiting Delhi daily to source their needs. CAIT said in a statement that they stopped coming to Delhi with COVID 19 restrictions and must be sourcing the requirements from other states, the adverse effect on Delhi trade will be known in the future.

According to the statement released by CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal, the trade leaders pointed out that there has been a decline of 45 per cent in the last 7 days due to various restrictions of COVID- 19, as well as in the last 7 days of the country.

The out-of-city buyer is not going out of his city, while the consumers are going to the market to buy goods only when it is really important. The country's business has fallen badly, and the central and state governments need to pay attention, according to the statement.

The country's domestic trade has declined by an average of more than 50 per cent in the last week, according to research done by CAIT across 36 cities in different states of the country.

The main reason for this decline is the decline in the panic among people due to the third wave of coronaviruses, the reluctantness of traders to come to distributing goods from neighbouring cities, large sums of money getting stuck in credit and the implementation of various COVID 19 restrictions without consulting the traders, CAIT said.

Consumer goods FMCG electronics, mobiles, footwear, jewellery, toys, gifts, hardware, sanitary ware, textiles, and cosmetics were the hardest hit sectors.

The trade leaders said that the business of the wedding season, which began from Jan 14 and the coming 2 and half months, was a business of about Rs. 4 lakh crore was expected, but a steep drop has been seen due to the various restrictions imposed by the state governments across the country.

They said that there is a possibility that there will be a loss of around 2.5 lakh crore in the next two and a half months in this business vertical.