POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Nov 7, 2021 :The small traders of Comilla are not good in Corona. Many have left the business. Again, many are not able to cope with the lack of capital. It is alleged that the small traders did not get the incentive money. Unable to survive, many workers have been forced to change long-term careers.
There are 20,000 different types of shops in the whole city of Comilla. There are 72 business associations. These shopkeepers have suffered the most in Corona. According to the Comilla Shop Owners’ Association, about 20 of the shop owners who have suffered due to corona have received incentive money. They have received a loan of Tk 50,000 from Comilla IFIC Bank branch.
Atiq Ullah, general secretary of the Comilla Shop Owners’ Association, told Prothom Alo: The rest of the family does not go. They are still unable to run the business due to lack of capital. At least two thousand owners have sold the store. But the big businessmen of Comilla have got the right incentive. They will be the defaulters again. Children will never be defaulters. If the children could get incentive loans, then the business in Comilla would be booming. ‘
There are about 350 gold traders in the city of Comilla. Corona is said to have halved their sales. Again, due to the increase in the price of gold, many people have started the business of mortgaging cash by keeping gold as collateral. Goldsmiths have changed professions because of Corona. Before Corona, there were more than 15,000 goldsmiths. Now it has come down to 10 thousand. Some of them are now known to drive autorickshaws.
Shah Alamgir Khan, a veteran businessman from Comilla, told Prothom Alo, “Small traders do not get bank loans as they do not have the capacity to provide collateral. Because the bank officials think they can’t repay the loan. ‘
Not even feeding at cost
One of the problems for small businesses is the rising cost of licensing and renewing. At present a businessman has to take three or four types of licenses. Such as trade license, VAT license, dealing license etc. The cost of these licenses has multiplied several times since Eklaf was transformed from a municipality to a city corporation a decade ago. Earlier, these licenses could be issued only for 500 to 1 thousand rupees. Now it costs 8-10 thousand rupees. Apart from this, if the money collected by the deputy commissioner is not given to the fund or LR fund, not much work is done.
Small traders are being crushed under the pressure of license renewal, dealing license, gas-electricity bill and tariff-VAT. Buyers do not want to pay VAT. So 100% VAT is not collected. But VAT officials often put pressure on traders. At the time of this corona, there was not much small business for a year and a half. So many traders are struggling to provide incidental expenses including license renewal. Traders want the renewal fee to be waived.
There are land ports, exports are low
Although there is huge potential for Bibirbazar land port on the border of Comilla city, it is not being utilized. There is no road for big cargo trucks to go to the land port. Although there is a bypass road, it is quite narrow. However, this land port is located within 10 kilometers of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. Apart from this, the land port of Bibirbazar is export dependent but the list of export products is quite short. Stone, cement and food products — these three products are the most exported.
In this regard, Comilla businessman Zahirul Haque said, the Melaghar area of Agartala is on the other side of the land port. There is no demand for such a product. Besides, Akhaura land port is next to Agartala, the capital of Tripura. So traders are more interested in using that land port.
