Shop owners seek stimulus package in next budget: Helal

Mizanur Rahman

Two crore 15 lakh people, directly involved with the shops and markets across the country, are in dire need of financial support in short term but a policy framing in long term.

If the government doesn’t allocate a special stimulus package in the upcoming budget, more than half of the industry insiders could be unemployed during this pandemic.

Bangladesh Shop Owners Association President Helal Uddin shared the current state of the sector and their demands in an interview with The Business Post.

“Since March last year, the shops and markets lost around Tk 45 crore and the amount heightened our tension with the troublesome time ticking by. We are preparing a proposal suggesting to the government how it can especially consider the sector. After the Eid vacation, we will send the proposal to the government through the Ministry of Finance,” he informed.

Helal Uddin said, there are 53 lakh 72 thousand and 716 shops operate trade and business across the country. The shop owners want bank loans on easy terms or cash incentive from the government as they faced huge losses in the ongoing lockdown having resumed their business only on March 25. As their business profit last year went down and hopes of recovery in this year is also bleak, they are just surviving.

The association helps shop owners on a small scale to get small loans from IFIC bank recently which is only Tk 50,000. “Now we are working to get at least Tk 50 lakh bank loan for large business owners and those who have incurred bigger losses,” he stated.

The shop owner’s association leader said, “Actually we do not have enough facility to help our members. Before this year, the association had no office building. We have rented an office this year and are trying to do something for our members for their betterment in the future. We represent all types of shops across the country. We have to come forward with an integrated platform. Unity is hardly needed to achieve any kind of goal in the sector.”

“For instance, if anyone wants to run a garment factory, the investor has to get membership from the sector’s trade body concerned such as Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) or Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA). But a shop owner doesn’t have to register with any such body. I want to request the government to make a regulation, bringing all kinds of shops under an umbrella organisation. If all shops come together then the revenue earning process will be easier,” he said.

In last year the government allowed the shop owners and markets to resume their business two weeks before Eid-ul-Fitr on a limited scale. But many large markets decided to not open their shops.

This year the government first announced a lockdown from April 5 to prevent the second wave of coronavirus infections and all shops and businesses were closed.

As the situation continued to get worse, a strict lockdown was announced for a week from April 14. The restrictions were later extended until May 16 in phases. Shop owners have been asked to resume their business from March 25 and they are doing accordingly.