By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Senior Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Tahir Abbasi has said that the lockdowns due to Covid-19 have badly affected small traders due to which they are facing
great difficulties and urged that the government should announce a special relief package to alleviate the plight of small traders.
Tahir Abbasi said that the majority of business people in Pakistan belong to small traders but due to lockdown many small traders have suffered huge losses. He emphasized that the government
should provide them immediate support, otherwise, many of them would lose their business forever, leading to increased unemployment and poverty.
He said that due to the closure of businesses, small traders in Islamabad are no longer in a position to pay rent of shops and stressed that the government should negotiate with shop owners to provide 6-month relief in rent payment to small traders. He said the government should also consider providing subsidies to small traders in payment of rents.
The SVP ICCI said that SBP has launched a Rozgar scheme for businesses so that they can take loans from banks to save their employees from becoming unemployed. However, he said that banks were demanding collateral for loans while small traders are not in a position to arrange collateral for loans. Therefore, he demanded that the government should provide loans on stamp paper to small traders so that they could protect their employees from unemployment.
Saif-ur-Rehman Khan, Vice President ICCI said that hotels and restaurants in Islamabad have been closed for a long time but they have to pay utility bills besides incurring other expenditures. He stressed that the government should defer collection of utility bills from hotels and restaurants till
the reopening of their businesses. He further said that hotels and restaurants in Islamabad should be reopened with SOPs as it is becoming more and more difficult for business class of this sector to pay their employees and meet other day to day expenses without restoration of businesses.
