Offline Retailers Urge Govt To Waive Off Interest On Loans During Lockdown

After ICEA projected that the smartphone industry will lose Rs. 15,000 crore, offline retailers have written a letter to the government. The retailers are asking for some relief as they have to shut down their stores during the lockdown.

Retailers are looking for some relief measures such as no interest on loans and rents for at least three months. In fact, All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) has also written a letter to the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

"The need of the hour is the waiver on interest on various loans for 3 months...We only want you to understand that at a time like this when there is no income even though salaries and commercial rents will be paid, the additional burden of having to pay interest on EMIs of these 3 months may result in bankruptcy for many," AIMRA said in a letter to the minister.

The government has recently announced some initiatives for all the sectors. It includes suspensions of EMI for three months, reports Economic Times Notably, the association has also written a letter to commerce minister Piyush Goyal and asked to defer the three months of the rents.

"Landlords can probably be assured that for not taking rent during the period of lockdown, they will be provided reimbursement by the government from GST subsidy / some other form over a span of 12 months...", the letter said.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi and Realme have asked the government to include smartphones as important items. Both, smartphone makers also want the government to tell the e-commerce players (Amazon and Flipkart) to deliver the devices during this hour as they are receiving so many inquiries from the buyers about the smartphone, and the deliveries. Xiaomi said there are 40 percent, first-time buyers, in India. So, this means it will be very difficult for them to communicate during the lockdown.