With textile industry hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic, traders at the E.K.M. Abdul Gani textile market (Gani market) in the city fear that that their business would take many months to recover.
There are 730 weekly shops and 370 daily shops selling all type of garments, both in wholesale and in retail. Merchants from various districts and other States place bulk orders for festivals and during summer and winter seasons. Due to closure of the market in the past two months, the livelihood of over 5,000 workers, including loadmen, drivers and others dependent on the market were affected. “We have already lost our major orders for Ugadi and Ramzan and now we lost our orders for school uniforms”, said S. Sakthivel, secretary, Erode Gani Market Weekly Textile Traders’ Association.
Speaking to The Hindu , he said that 80% of the traders had obtained loans and has to pay Equated Monthly Instalments (EMI) which they could not do in the past two months. He said that each shop has a minimum of one worker and most of them were paid their one month salary. “Since there is no business activity, traders are left with no money now”, he said and wanted assistance to be provided to the workers till trading activity resumes. Mr. Sakthivel said that when shops are reopened, merchants will seek credit facilities while purchasing goods which they cannot afford in the present situation. “We have no money left with us”, he said and added that sales for Deepavali will only make the market back on track.
Traders wanted GST rate for all textile products to be reduced from 5% to 2%, extend interest-free credit facility for the sector and also support the workers during crisis. “Since many migrant workers prefer to return to their native, we may face shortage of labour too”, they added and wanted the government to support workers until normalcy returns.
