SRINAGAR: Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has started an exercise to prepare a comprehensive report about economic losses suffered by Kashmir since the government of India abrogated
Article 370 in August.
KCCI president Sheikh Ashiq told Kashmir Reader that the apex business body will be assessing the losses of all sectors including agriculture, horticulture, industries and service sector.
“All the sectors have faced losses in various proportions. In our initial assessment, we said the loses have touched Rs 10,000 crore. We will come up with a comprehensive report which will show how
the losses were inflicted on the economy,” he said.
The development follows the government of India’s claim in the Parliament that there is no specific report on losses suffered by Kashmir after the special constitutional status was abrogated and
the state downsized into two Union Territories.
Business establishments in Kashmir remained shut with internet still suspended for the last four months. Markets mostly open partially as business establishments run their operation till afternoon.
The KCCI president said the report is being prepared by taking inputs from all the stakeholders of all the sectors, which include agriculture, industry, and services.
According to Sheikh, the KCCI is working day-and-night, in absence of internet, to actually tell people how the economy has been ailing due to the lockdown.
Service sector, he said, comprises more than 50 percent of J&K’s gross domestic product. And suffered immensely due to internet shutdown, he added.
“Two back to back government’s anti-tourism advisories in the first week of August have shattered all the prospective business. Tourism is dependent on internet. E-commerce sector and IT related
business has affected too. Industry and agriculture too have suffered in the same way. The report will actually bust the myth spread about the losses,” said the KCCI president.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz