‘Rs 18,000-Crore’ Lockdown

The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday said businesses had suffered a staggering loss of nearly Rs 18,000 crore in the four-month clampdown that followed the central government’s August 5 move to scrap the then state’s special status. “The current spell of disruptions could not have come at a worse time,” the chamber said in a preliminary report. “The present disruption has resulted in loss of jobs to lakhs, borrowers from financial institutions have lost their capacity to fulfil their commitments and a substantial number of accounts are likely to turn bankrupt. Many business establishments have closed down or are contemplating closure.”

The report, released on Tuesday, said the chamber had adopted two methods to assess the loss — one, a top-down approach, and the other a sector-wise study. “The top-down method of loss estimation (was) based on J&K’s Gross Domestic Product of 2017-18 based on J&K’s Economic Survey 2017-18…. A time span of 120 days has been assumed for the calculations. As per this method, Kashmir’s economy suffered a loss of Rs 17,878.18 crore,” it said.

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