The Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI) on Monday said the sector has lost over Rs 90,000 crore in the last two months, owing to the lockdown, and market players need much more than the repo rate cut and the loan moratorium extended by the RBI.
In a statement, the industry body said that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) relief measures are not adequate to support the liquidity needs of the industry.
According to the SCAI, there is a common misconception that the shopping centres' industry is centred around metros and large cities with investments only from large developers, private equity players and foreign investors.
"However, the fact is that most malls are part of the SMEs or standalone developers. i.e. more than 550 are single owned by standalone developers out of the 650-odd organised shopping centres across the country and there are 1,000+ small centres in smaller cities," it said.
Amitabh Taneja, Chairman of SCAI said: "The organised retail industry is in distress and has not earned anything since the lockdown and their survival is at stake. While the extension of the loan moratorium talks about some relief on repayment but won't help the industry in liquidity."
He said that a long term beneficial plan from the government is much required to revive the sector.
"Being the most safe, accountable, and controlled environment, unfortunately, malls have not been permitted to open which will lead to job losses and might even shut shops for a lot of mall developers," Taneja said.
In its representations to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India, the association has also pointed out that, in absence of financial package and stimulus from the RBI, over 500 shopping centres may go bankrupt, that may lead to the banking industry staring at NPAs of Rs 25,000 crore.
The industry body has put forward its recommendations and requests to the government. It had sought moratorium till March 2021 at the least in terms of repayment of bank loans, interest, EMI and so on, without levy of any penalties or penal interest.
It has also sought a one-time loan restructuring with lower rates of interest, permitted for shopping centres and a facilitative and forward-looking support provision of short-term financing options for a period of six to 12 months, at lower interest rates, to meet the increased working capital requirements.
Among other relaxations, it had also appealed for GST rebates to offset the losses on account of and for the period of closure of business.
It also said that interest rates should be brought down to "manageable levels" of 5-6% in view of the precarious financial situation.
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The day is not too long to fight for Muslim Freedom/Indipendent - India will FIRE....
That means bakht indian are easily fooled by their cheddi leaders from knowing the TRUTH of WORSHIPING ONE GOD... (NA TASYA PRATIMA ASTI) and these cheddis very easily CONTROL these IGNOrANTS of their GOD given LIFE and BLIND them from understanding their own religion .... Swami AGNIVESH is telling the TRUTH but cheddis blinded the Bhakts so shakuningly that they ignored truth and and stand with the cheddis cos of their religious IGNORANT... Learn from AGNIWESH, cow is not your mother or God its an ANIMAL created by ONE MERCIFUL GOD for human sustenance thru milk or meat... Human beings are an intelligent creation of GOD, if they dont try to know this ONE GOD who created all that exists, then they are really easily FOOLED by the evils of the Society. Wake up guys dont be FOOLS of our time
Yea there is no wonder if one day may afgan talaban enters india to sacrifice their life to protect muslims from crime of saffron talaban killings of innocent muslims.
Well said Mr. Taroor. You are totally right. Even its dung has value also.
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