Business revenues down by 85%, claim owners

Local businesses in Noida claim that their revenues in the last three months have gone down by nearly 85%, while standalone shops in markets are functioning at only

Local businesses in Noida claim that their revenues in the last three months have gone down by nearly 85%, while standalone shops in markets are functioning at only 15% to 20% of its capacity due to the odd-even rule and night curfew.

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They claim they are being discriminated against as malls in the district were allowed to operate seven days a week while.

“A standalone shop is operating barely 12-13 days in a month, which reduces to productivity to 33%. If we factor in the night curfew which cuts into prime business hours, the functioning capacity of any business comes down to 15 to 20%. The footfall is also so low and so there is hardly any revenue, falling by as much as 85%,” said Sushil kumar Jain, president, sector 18 market association.

He said that the meagre demand in the markets is only for basic necessities like food, stationary, clothing, etc.

“No item except the basics is important these days. There was some demand for purchase or service of electronic/ electrical gadgets or phones in the beginning when markets opened but even that has dwindled now. And with most people working from home, market requirements have reduced drastically,” said Jain.

In view of the Covid-19 pandemic the district had ordered shops in market areas to open on an odd-even basis based on their shop numbers given by the market. One day is a mandatory sanitisation day for all.

“Very few restaurants have started business. The timings are not in our favour. We are required to shut down before the dinner rush and with the present weather conditions, lunch hours don’t see many customers. For us opening is not even worth the effort and with the current non-existent footfall, regular operations will only lead to wastage of food. We are hopeful that the curfew timings will revise from July 10 and then we can decide further,” said Varun Khera, a restaurant owner.

Business owners feel that certain segments like retailers, travel businesses, jewellery stores have been affected worse than others.

“Our revenues have dropped by nearly 90% so much so that it doesn’t even make sense to open the agency. International flights are the major source of profit and that business is at hardly at a 30% capacity. With no student travel, business is meagre. We don’t know when the situation will improve,” said Sunil Dang, owner of a travel agency in sector 18.

Business owners had even earlier requested the administration for changing the odd-even rule to six days a week but to no avail.

“There is no official order for changes in the odd-even system for now,” said district labour commissioner, PK Singh.