Kerala: Traders urge state, Centre to tackle fuel price surge

KOCHI: Merchants in the city ask the state and central governments to take steps to reduce fuel prices as they are forced to increase the price of goods due to increased transportation and logistics costs. The traders stated they have been struggling to revive businesses since the lifting of lockdown, and the increasing fuel prices are making the revival an almost impossible task.
Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Youth Forum convener Rajesh Nair said that the skyrocketing fuel prices has affected small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale businesses.“When e-commerce giants are able to sell goods at discounted rates or come up with sales clearance offers, those traders who operate from the markets are finding it difficult to survive. If the traders try to pass on the increased transportation and logistics cost to end customers, their customers will desert them. If they do not pass on these increased costs, then they will have to bear huge losses. In short, the merchants are in a fix,” he said, adding that the trading community is already facing issues related to NPA and repayment of bank loans and the like.
Traders are of the view that increase in fuel prices have led to increased cost of living. People are trying to overcome the financial crisis created as the result of lockdown. “As cost of living increases, it is natural for people to cut down on expenses. Though many merchants did good business in December 2020, the next two months witnessed a slowdown. People were active during the festival season, and once the season got over they rolled back their spending,” said Kavitha Aravind, a merchant.
The merchants feel that Kerala being a consumer state will suffer further financial crisis as almost all the goods are brought from other states. If fuel prices continue to increase unchecked, many traders would be forced to go out of business as they will be unable to meet the pressing financial requirements.
“The governments should act immediately,” said Nair.