The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Traders lose business

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 13, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Traders lose business

Staff Reporter

It may take them three months to recover from
the loss

BANGALORE: While the truckers withdrew their strike on Monday, traders in the Central Business District (CBD) have been ruing the lost business opportunities during the last one week.

Trading had been hit severely during the lorry strike, and traders are now grappling with cancellation or postponement of orders owing to the delay in arrival of products, especially at a time every sale is a lifeline for the trader hit hard by recession. Nearly 50 per cent of the business was affected as the supply chain was completely affected, a trader said.

“Many clients who had not made any advance payment cancelled their orders even though traders had placed the orders to their suppliers by making payment,” secretary of Federation of Trade Associations of Central Bangalore B.K. Goyal told The Hindu. A dealer in pumps and generators, Mr. Goyal, like many others, has been facing cancellation or postponement of orders. One such letter from a client read: “The order stands cancelled as it was not delivered on time.”

He said a majority of clients understood the problems associated with supply as the products got struck at various places in transit.

Finances tight

Another fallout of the strike has been that the already tight financial position has further deteriorated. “Banks are not entertaining applications for temporary overdrafts and our capital was trapped with suppliers. Traders are in a spot,” Mr. Goyal said.

Another trader said that it may take more than a month for the trading community to streamline the supply chain, and a couple of months more to recover the investments since the strike came at a time when recession had already slowed down business.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka