West Bengal: Operating time revised, retail stores & off-shops to be open for 7 hours daily

KOLKATA: Retail shops will now be able to do business for seven hours daily instead of the usual four hours that they had till now. With the restrictions being eased, all individual retail stores, including those retailing liquor, will have revised business hours from 11am to 6pm from Wednesday when the new rules will come into effect. Till now, they had been allowed to operate from noon to 4pm.
The longer window, traders said, will facilitate revival of trade and generate demand for goods and services, which will, in turn, infuse life into the production sector as well.

“It is a cautious step towards reopening. I think the CM took the right decision by taking a calibrated approach to normalcy. The extended window of trade for the retail stores makes sense. Traders now have greater independence in buying, stocking and selling things, which was difficult in the shorter window,” said Confederation of West Bengal Traders’ Associations president Sushil Poddar.
The curbs were enforced on May 16 to stem the surge in Covid cases across the state. Only grocery stores and daily essential markets were allowed to operate from 7am to 10am. With a decline in the number of infections, the state decided to extend the operating window,” said an officer.
“The longer window will also reduce overcrowding. People require many things in their daily life. It is not always possible to reach shops within the specified three hours. On Friday, I desperately required papers and envelopes. I hurried to the shop at 4.15pm to find it shut. It hampered my work,” said Saili Ghosh Dastidar, a commercial artist with an advertising agency.
“Many of my fellow traders had complained about how to run their shops without employees who can travel only on public transport. I told them to run the shop on their own. Let the business gradually gain pace before it opens fully. By that time, we will have a greater vaccination coverage among our fellow traders,” said Anil Dasgupta, who runs a hardware shop at Narkeldaga.
Booksellers and publishers were also elated with the order. “A seven-hour window is good enough to run a trade successfully. But to swing back into business, we need public transport as well. College Street is a place where buyers come from across the state. Even if only intra-city buses are allowed to ply, we will benefit hugely,” said Ranjit Ghosh, a publisher at College Street.
The liquor off-shops will also get the extended hours, an Excise official said. Sudip Kumar Ghosh, a leading liquor merchant, said the new timings will improve sales.
Tamanjan Saha and Debasis Ghosh, who also have off-shops, agreed. Saha said that. at present, the average sales of off-shops have reached 60% of the normal level. With the new timing, the sale is likely to improve.