Khatunganj traders face Tk10,000cr loss in five days

Businesses in Chattogram are suffering hefty losses as amid protests coupled with ongoing curfew and internet blackout for the last few days.

The country's prevailing situation has disrupted goods transportation and business, leading to a drastic fall in buying and selling of goods at the Khatunganj wholesale market.

Traders at the market said due to the ongoing situation, businesses here miss out from trade worth Tk10,000 crore in the last five days. 

In the market, wholesalers used to do most of their business dealings through banking channel. But, internet outage, shutdown and closure of banks halted all kind of trading at the market, they added.   

Poritosh Mohajan, proprietor of King Traders at Khatunganj, a wholesale trader of pulses, told The Business Standard, "Businesses here usually sale of goods worth Tk10-15 crore daily on an average.  Now they here have seen their sales fall by almost zero due to last few day's protests, ongoing internet blackout couple with curfew."

"The businesses have incur huge loss due to the ongoing situation for the last five days," Poritosh said.

During a visit to the market, some storehouses and wholesale shops were seen open but sales are very low. Traders blamed poor presence of buyers from districts and upazilas as they were unable to reach the market due to curfew.

Azizul Haque, the proprietor of Haque Trading, a wholesale trader in Khathunganj, said they have also seen drastic fall in sales due to the protests, curfew, and internet blackout.

He said the prevailing situation have disrupted transportation of goods, making it difficult to reach goods at the wholesale market from districts and upazilas and sale goods to small traders as they are unable to visit market for buying supplies for their shops.

Farid Uddin Ahmed, a rice trader at Chaktai, said businesses have been struggling the most for the closure of banking channel amid internet outage couple with curfew. Because, they do their 95% of business transactions through the banking channel.

"How they trade their products if they failed to encash the cheques they received from their buyers?," he added.

Syed Sagir Ahmed, general secretary of the Khatunganj Trade and Industries Association, told TBS, "Some storehouses and wholesale shops were opened on Monday, but curfew, internet outage drags the sales of consumer goods down drastically as retailers from districts and upazilas were unable to reach.

Besides, no goods laden trucks reach the wholesale market from the districts and upazilas markets.

A few retailers from different areas of the city and adjacent upazilas who went to Khatunganj to buy supplies for their shops, alleged that the price of goods in the market relatively high in excuse of less supply.

According to Khatunganj Traders Association, the wholesale market in Chattogram fulfils 40% of the country's demand for consumer goods.  There are a total of 5000 storehouses and shops at the Khatunganj wholesale market, where goods worth Tk2000-2500 crore are traded daily on an average.

As per the calculation, wholesalers at the market count losses about Tk10000 crore in the last five days amid the ongoing situation.