Sando Chamber head: small businesses will not survive extended covid19 restrictions

With covid19 restrictions extended for almost a month, the Greater San Fernando Area Chamber of Commerce president Kiran Singh is hoping Government plans for small businesses in the October 5 budget.

After the Prime Minister’s media briefing on Saturday, where he announced and extension of the regulations to October 11 and review of it by September 28, Singh said micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) could be destroyed.

He told Newsday that while business owners understood the need to curb the spread of the covid19, the extension will never be good news for the business community.

Singh said, “We fear the small businesses are dying slowly because we have no avenues to generate income which leads to the precarious positions of us not being able to support of families, pay salaries to our staff and meet the responsibilities that owners have as entrepreneurs.”

He suggested that bars and restaurants should have been reopened while maintaining the regulations and guidelines.

“Before these last set of restrictions what we saw was restaurants and bars were allowed to have some sort of dining and in-house purchasing.We would have though that that could have continued, or reintroduced to a certain extent, to ensure the survivability of the small entrepreneurs.

“We hope the Minister of Finance address these concerns in the budget. We are hoping for the reintroduction of social welfare measures during the first lockdown,” Singh said.

He suggested that a reduction in the utility rates and bank fees would assist tremendously, but this has measure is yet to be seen.