Lockdown extension worsens workers’ woes: FCCI chief

FAISALABAD: Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) president Rao Sikandar-e-Azam Wednesday said SME sector has successfully absorbed the first phase of coronavirus lockdown, but its extension multiplied economic and social woes of workers.

Talking to reporters, he said unprecedented lockdown will render millions of workers jobless and a large number of people will slip down below the poverty line.

The FCCI president said the government should take necessary measures to avoid a major crisis. He lauded the steps taken by the government of giving construction sector the status of industry, but he said despite this facility a number of sectors linked with construction sector have not yet been allowed to work.

“Among these include iron and steel, tiles, sanitary fittings, electronics and timber”, he maintained. The FCCI president said the government must allow all sectors linked with construction industry to work so that benefits of this decision may reach to workers of other sectors. He said the government had already allowed various sectors in which mandatory social distance could not be maintained while other less hazardous professions have been denied to start work. He demanded the government reconsider its priority list and allow all businesses to start work as these are inter dependent on each other and could not yield required results with incomplete chain.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has stressed for expeditious disbursement of all outstanding refunds as the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the cash flow squeezing the financial streams. In a statement issued here on Wednesday, PTEA chairman Sohail Pasha expressed serious concerns over unnecessary delay in disbursement of pending refunds of exporters despite the commitment of the government for liquidation of Rs 100 billion pending refund claims to save the export industry from the adverse impacts of Covid-19 pandemic.