About 15 million people face job losses in India’s exports’ sector following cancellation of over half of the orders and a gloomy forecast for global trade due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exporters’ body FIEO said.
Seeking immediate announcement of a relief package for exports, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Sharad Kumar Saraf said fine balancing is required between life and livelihood, as opting for only one can be disastrous for the country.
He said that exporters were left with “very” few orders and if factories were not allowed to work with a minimum workforce, many of them will suffer “irreparable losses” which will bring them to the brink of closure as they were saddled with fixed costs that, in any case, had to be absorbed by them.
“With cancellation of over 50% of the orders and a gloomy forecast for the future, we expect 15 million job losses in exports and rising NPAs (non-performing assets) amongst exporting units, hitting the economy very badly,” he said.
“We are losing markets to China. All orders are going to China as they have resumed work. It will be very late if we don’t start our factories now,” he said.