Top retailers have sought Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s intervention to allow them to restart operations.

“We request you to allow our operations in individual districts where we have been asked to shutdown. We assure you that we will follow the Government rules and regulations for Covid-19,” said a letter sent by leading retailers, including Viveks, Vasanth & CO, Girias, Venus Electronics and Shri Meenakshi Fan House, to the Chief Secretary through the CII.

Any further delay will result in loss of jobs of 30-40 per cent and around 10,000 families will lose their livelihood, the retailers warned.

Tamil Nadu consumers electronics and Home appliance market is nearly ₹7,500 crore per annum; employing around 25,000 front line salesmen and nearly 1,500 in the backend. The GST revenue ₹1,875 crore per annum and 40 per cent of this contributes in the month of March, April and May.

It’s already been 45 days since the shops are closed due to lockdown. There are many challenges like payment of rent, salary and government bills aggregating to ₹300 crore.

Livelihoods lost

There are lakhs of families depending on this industry in manufacturing, logistics, service engineers and advertising agencies, who will also lose their livelihood.

The implications of this will result in the loss of direct and indirect taxes. “We request the Chief Minister and all the government authorities to help us come out of this situation,” the letter said.

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