Coronavirus has already emerged as a threat to clothing retailers for the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr, with the nationwide shutdown to slow the spread of the virus in force, experts said. As a result, businesspeople are passing a critical time and fearing huge losses ahead of the upcoming Eid festival as it is the most important occasion for the clothing business, they said.
Economists said businessmen involved in the Eid transactions have estimated the size of the Eid economy to be around Tk 15,000 crore to Tk 20,000 crore, which is being affected by the coronavirus epidemic. They added it will also affect the country’s overall economy in many ways. A clothing businessman, Ahasanul Islam told Bangladesh Post clothing markets are usually abuzz with customers before the start of Ramadan every year.
“The bulk of the profit is generated during Ramadan ahead of Eid-ul Fitr. It will be very difficult for us to compensate for the losses this time,” he added. A small and medium enterprise (SME) entrepreneur, Abeda Khatun told this correspondent, “We are having a difficult time. If this situation continues, we will have to incur huge losses.”
“We have produced different types of products, including saris and Panjabis, for Eid festival,” she informed. Khatun said, “If we cannot sell our products this time, it will be very difficult to sell those products on different other occasions. Now we are under pressure to repay bank loans.”
Another businessman, Mostafizur Rahman said, “Non-stop work was going on in the factories last year. It is not happening this time for the coronavirus pandemic.” “We are going to face huge losses as we have already missed the big occasion (Pahela Boishakh),” he added.
Shahin Ahmed, Proprietor of Anjans and President of Fashion Entrepreneurs Association of Bangladesh said, “Around 5 lakh people are involved with fashion house businesses across the country, where around 80 percent are women. Those people are going to face financial troubles as the fashion houses may incur losses at around Tk 2000 crore ahead of the Eid festival due to the lockdown.”
He urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to sanction Tk 500 crore as interest free loan for this sector to recoup the losses. Senior Research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr Nazneen Ahmed said, “In the ongoing crisis, the entrepreneurs and businessmen have faced huge losses as they could not sell their products.”
“Most of the businessmen prepared themselves with different types of products, many businessmen even took loans for extra production as it is a major festival in the country, she said while adding that many entrepreneurs are going to be trapped in the net of loans.” Hence, the government should immediately provide cash financial incentives to all sectors and individuals especially those who are the most affected by the current coronavirus in order to overcome the worsening national and global crisis, she mentioned.
Ahmed urged the authority concerned to arrange different fairs for businessmen to sell their products after overcoming the terrible situation in the country.
