Most of the shopping malls, textile showrooms and jewellery marts downed their shutters on Wednesday here in compliance with the directive of the State government.
The employees of the commercial establishments came for duty as usual on Wednesday. However, the officials of the Tiruchi Corporation, who visited the establishments even before the arrival of the employees, served notices asking them to close their businesses until further instructions from the government. The officials told them that the State government had stated that the establishments with 3000 square feet area should close their businesses in order to prevent crowding so as to check the spread of the COVID 19 infections.
Following this, major establishments on NSB road, Big Bazar Street, West Boulevard Road, College Road, Chathiram Bus Stand, Cantonment and other areas declared leave to their employees. The textile and departmental stores on Tiruchi-Thanjavur road also closed their businesses.
Thanjavur
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Thanjavur, has sought exemption of big format shops, shopping malls/complex and hotels/restaurants from COVID-19 lockdown restrictions taking into consideration their precarious financial situation.
In a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister, it said that many of its members were running supermarkets, electronics, textiles and ready-made showrooms, most of which fall under the big format shops category, and some of them were in restaurant/hotel business.
Stating that the standard operating procedures (SOP) laid down by the government to check the spread of novel coronavirus has been practised at these establishments where only the asymptomatic staff were deployed for duty and customers are allowed to enter premises after complying with the SOPs, it said that the working capital and fund flow of these establishments would be hit badly if they were remain closed for a longer period once again.
Since the stock in trade was the capital reserve, jeopardising the cycle of the debit and credit in the business would stymie the ability of these institutions to foot the salary bill of their staff during this period.
The moratorium or interest subsidy extended by the financial institutions was very meagre, the memorandum added.
The State government must consider the plea on humanitarian grounds to ensure both investors and employees of these institutions stay afloat and are not bogged down by debt, it said.
