1.5 lakh employees lost their jobs due to the shutdown of shopping malls in Karnataka

Picture used for representational purpose only

Bengaluru: More than 1.5 lakh employees in shopping malls in Karnataka have lost their jobs due to the lockdown imposed from the last one year. The mall owners have had a loss of crores of rupees and are now requesting the government to let them reopen the malls by June 21.

Mukesh Kumar, chairman, Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI) and CEO, Infiniti Malls, said for every person directly employed with the malls, there are more than two or three persons indirectly employed, giving logistics and support.

He said, “In such a scenario, at least 1.5 lakh people have lost their jobs in the state. Though around 50,000 of them were reemployed after malls reopened for a brief time, many were laid off during the second lockdown.” He added that if no support is provided, 50% of those standalone malls will shut down permanently.

Sunil Munshi, AVP operations, Orion Malls stated that almost 80% of the people working in malls come from economically weaker sections of the society.

Kumar said that a moratorium extended by RBI last year ended in March and they have nothing to fall back on. He said, “There has hardly been any revenue for a retailer or the mall. The past few months have been so stressful that we don’t know how to cope.”

On average, revenue from retail in malls in the state is Rs 2,000 crore per month. They pay Rs 350 crore GST. Due to lockdowns, retails have had losses of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 crore and governments have suffered GST loss of Rs 30,000 crore. Kumar said, “Malls have lost 15% of the revenue generated by retailers.”

He stated that pre-Covid estimates show that across the country, 1,000 malls generate monthly revenue of Rs 12,000-Rs 15,000 crores. There has been a loss of Rs 1 lakh crores to the whole ecosystem.

Najeeb Kunil, CEO, PPZ Mall Development & Management Services Co said that they have appealed to the state government to provide waivers around rental/lease, electricity charges, upcoming renewals of existing permits/ licenses/ NOCs among others. They have also sought waivers around property taxes payment till January 2022 and support around minimum wages rates and guard board payments until FY 2021-22.

He said, “The sooner they take a call and heed our requests, the better it will be for everyone in the ecosystem, not just the developers.”

The members of the SCAI said that the only solution is to reopen the malls as soon as possible. Kunil said, “We hope to be back to 90% of footfall by October.”