CAP seeks permission to work full week in high vaccinated cities

LAHORE: Chainstore Association of Pakistan (CAP) on Monday asked the National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) and federal government to permit all retail outlets and shopping malls in high vaccinated cities to operate seven days a week as was the case for all other sectors.

In a letter written to NCOC chief Asad Umar, CAP said that one safe day now primarily applied only to chain stores in the highly vaccinated cities. The NCOC announced incentives with relatively relaxed NPIs in the eight high vaccinated cities of Pakistan on September 29.

As per the NCOC notification, those eight high vaccinated cities were Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Gilgit, and Skardu, while major cities such as Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Multan, Peshawar and others were excluded until next review due on October 13.

CAP Chairman Tariq Mehboob said CAP was compelled to request urgent intervention to include retail businesses in the sectors allowed to operate seven days a week, as the NCOC restriction was only applied to the chain stores now.

Mehboob said the organised retail sector already following the restriction of allowing entry to fully vaccinated individuals only. “Based on this high level of compliance, it is surprising that we are not allowed to operate on the remaining one day of the week, while restaurants, cinemas and all other businesses are permitted to operate throughout the week,” the letter said.

It also pointed out that such businesses located in shopping malls were also unable to generate sufficient revenue due to the closure of retail outlets. Shopping malls, chain stores and high-street markets were structured to operate 7 days a week. Fixed costs such as rentals, payroll, common maintenance, etc were all set accordingly.

On the other hand, only unorganised retail and wholesale markets were already closed one day a week before the pandemic. Therefore, closure on one safe day does not particularly impact them the unorganised retail and wholesale markets. Mehboob said that all retail businesses organised or otherwise, should be permitted to operate throughout the week, which would also reduce congestion on other days.

It is important to mention here that several organised retail businesses already shut hundreds of their outlets permanently due to financial collapse in the backdrop of compounded impact of restrictions/partial lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Further, the remaining retailers have reached a critical stage where payments against supplies, rents, salaries and overheads were no longer possible due to the exhaustion of all reserves and financing options.

This situation was already having a domino effect on the liquidity of over 70 allied sectors, including domestic manufacturing, cottage industries, wholesale trade, service providers, and dozens of other upstream businesses as well as the large workforce employed across the value chain.

CAP urged the government and NCOC for immediate intervention in the high vaccinated cities initially, although vaccinated businesses in all remaining cities should also be allowed to open normally to revive the overall economy now that the 4th wave of the pandemic has receded.