Strike to cost up to Rs.18,000 cr to economy: Assocham

The Dollar Business Bureau

The Bharath Bandh on Friday called by the central trade unions (CTUs) has affected the industry particularly in the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tripura, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. This strike has caused a loss of Rs.16,000 – 18,000 crore to the Indian economy, as estimated by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).

According to the industry body’s assessment, the country cannot afford strikes as it needs to ramp up the gross domestic product (GDP) growth by boosting key sectors including manufacturing, banking and services. Such halts in the production of public and private sector companies would damage the pace of the country’s growth.

Trade, transport, hospitality and banking services are the major components of the country’s gross value added (GVA) and GDP. All these key sectors have been crippled by the all-India strike, Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.

He also said that the trade unions should have negotiated with the Central government to reach a middle ground. Indian industry is never against the fair wages and better standard of living for the workers. But their demand for minimum wages should be balanced enough without leading to high-cost economy.

Due to the all-India strike for one day, there was a crippling impact on the country’s exports as well. The domestic manufacturing facilities have been affected. With the absence of banking and financial services, the complete supply chain has been affected. As the transport services were hit, the transit for exports have also been hurt, the industry chamber said.

Though the strike had very less impact in cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, the overall trade chain was hurt with disruption in few main centres. After the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is implemented, the inter-dependence among various manufacturing and trading centres would further go up, Assocham added.