65% CEOs anticipate over 40% revenue loss: Survey

The Covid-19 outbreak and the ensuing lockdown is expected to result in revenue loss and job cuts, revealed a survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry

The Covid-19 outbreak and the ensuing lockdown is expected to result in revenue loss and job cuts, revealed a survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) based on the responses of more than 300 company heads across India.

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Around 65% CEOs across the country expect revenue to fall by more than 40% in the current quarter (April-June 2020). The survey, ‘CII CEOs Snap Poll on Impact of Covid-19 on Economy and Industry’, was released on Saturday.

CII is a non-government business association comprising private and public sector companies. Two-thirds of those surveyed were company heads of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The survey revealed that 54% CEOs also anticipate job losses in their sectors post the lockdown. Of this, 45% expect 15-30% job-cuts.

Of those surveyed, 44.7% are of the view that it will take more than a year to resume normalcy in the economy, while 34% anticipate their companies to recover in a period of 6-12 months. The only relief from the survey is that 65% of those surveyed have not experienced wage/salary-cut in their firms. However, 48% feel that if a salary-cut is imposed, the tenure will largely remain undecided.

Complete shutdown of operations, lack of demand for products, credit crunch, unavailability or constraints in movement of labour, no access to raw materials are some of the main constraints in the operation of businesses, the survey revealed.

Taking cognisance of the deteriorating industry expectations, Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of CII, said “While the lockdown was necessary to mitigate the impact of coronavirus on the population, it has had dire implications for economic activity. At this hour, the industry awaits a stimulus package for economic revival and livelihood sustenance besides calibrated exit from lockdown.”

In Maharashtra, as on Saturday, 8,220 units are in production with 1.6 lakh workers reporting to sites after the state introduced certain relaxations post April 20.