72% industries foresee de-growth in sales, reveals FICCI survey

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a deep impact on the Indian economy and sections of the Indian industry. The pandemic is set to leave a ‘high to very high’ level of impact on the businesses, an industry survey revealed.

Almost 72% of the 380 respondents to the ‘FICCI–Dhruva survey’, said they do not foresee a positive demand outlook for their business in this fiscal and they expect degrowth in sales in the fiscal year 2020-21.

A vast majority also foresee a reduction in their business cashflows and company’s order book. The survey clearly highlights that unless a substantive economic package is announced by the government immediately, there could be a permanent impairment of a large section of the industry, which may lose the opportunity to come back to life again. Jobs are also at risk over the coming months as nearly three-fourths of the surveyed firms said that they may look at some reduction in manpower in their respective companies.

These findings were revealed in a joint nationwide survey of businesses conducted by FICCI and Dhruva Advisors over the last week.

Dr Sangita Reddy, President, FICCI said, “The Covid-19 pandemic is causing deep economic harm and could reverse the gains made in the industrial economy over many decades. There is a need to render immediate and sizable support to industry to protect people, jobs, and enterprises.”

Karnataka MSMEs in deep trouble

An estimated 30% of the 6.5 lakh micro, small and medium enterprises in Karnataka are unlikely to resume their operations even after the lockdown is lifted on May 3. This may result in loss of employment to lakhs of people. There are about 65 lakh people are employed in the MSME sector in Karnataka and almost 19 lakhs of them may be rendered jobless, according to projections of Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (Kassia).

“We have been requesting both Central and State governments from the beginning of the present crisis to come out with a package. While the government has announced some relief measures for SMEs, these are only in the nature of relaxing compliance barring the EPF relief. The rest are only in the nature of putting of payments for a time or waiving penalties etc., which are really not substantive,” R Raju, President, Kassia said.