Lockdown impact: 65% companies expect 40% hit to revenue in Q1

NEW DELHI: A significant majority — 65% of firms expected a substantial hit to revenues of about 40% in the April-June quarter, found the survey of 300 CEOs, conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

As many as 45% of the 300 firms surveyed expected a protracted economic recovery of over a year before things go back to normal.

Among the many reasons for the declining trend, a majority of firms at 74.8% cited the complete shutdown of operations and just over half or 53.1% cited a lack of demand.


Other major reasons included disruptions in supply and distribution chains and lack of credit, manpower and raw materials.

Taking cognisance of the deteriorating industry expectations, Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII said “While the lockdown was necessary to mitigate the impact of coronavirus on the population, it has had dire implications for economic activity. At this hour, the industry awaits a stimulus package for economic revival and livelihood sustenance besides calibrated exit from lockdown.”

According to the survey, a large proportion of firms felt domestic demand would recover quicker than export demand. While 36.9% of firms saw domestic demand touching normal levels within a year, 41% of firms expected demand for export order to resume normalcy after a year.

LOCKDOWN 3.0 The CII has sought more relaxations in the major economic districts during the extended lockdown period starting May 4.It has said that the cost of prioritising actions in such districts would be much smaller in comparison with the economic loss if these businesses remain shut. The CII called for the economic contribution of districts to be taken into consideration while classifying lockdown zones.