By Venkatesh Raghavan
Mumbai: The trading community in the country’s financial hub, Mumbai reported a huge crunch situation owing to not yet having achieved a break even in their financial fortunes, while emerging from the shadows of the previous lockdown.
Agrim Shah, a travel agent from Central Mumbai, said even after the previous lockdown conditions had eased there were no signs of business picking up owing to the fear psychosis prevailing in people’s minds. With the fresh round of restrictions imposed on the state till May 1, I feel this will be the second consecutive year in which our travel operators will be forced to put up with a cash crunch, he added.
The restrictions imposed on the entertainment industry is also an equal dampener, with movie houses that were forced to drag their feet at 50% capacity, now returning to total shutdown mode.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray permitted manufacturing industries that need time to stop or restart operations to function under the 50% capacity slab.
The relief package or stimulus allocation from the state government stands at INR 5476 crore. Construction workers, auto rickshaw drivers, licensed hawkers and other marginalized labourers qualify to be covered under the stimulus package from the state government stables. In rural and tribal belts of Maharashtra, the Chief Minister his announced a Rs 2,000 monthly amount to mitigate their financial hardships. In addition, regular subsidised rations of grains and vegetables too have been put in place for lower income families.
Mumbai city will be facing stiff transport restrictions that will limit commercial activities to just online functioning. However, e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart will not be allowed to do business as usual. The groceries and vegetables section has been exempted from the shutdown.
Money markets also sounded tight with no signs of any changes in the investing patterns since the first lockdown phase was enforced. The corporate regulator SEBI and financial institutions that relate with its functioning have been permitted to remain open.
