Partners in J&K lose Rs 15 crore in 2 months

The two month-long agitation over the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti land in J&K
has finally come to an end with businesses resuming their normal routine.
Partners in the valley have started calculating the losses suffered by them
during the entire period. The closing day saw the partner community wearing a
long face, as for a few the losses accounted for over Rs 80 lakh. Amidst a mixed
feeling of victory and huge commercial losses, partners are positive that
business will regain its normal pace in another 15 to 20 days.

After a complete shutdown of business for almost 60 days and zero percent
sale, the biggest challenge among the channel community is to make payments to
vendors for the stock taken from them. Rakesh Gupta of Source Peripherals, Jammu
informed, “Our average sales during the month of July and August was Rs 40 lakh
each month, and as a result of the complete shutdown in the entire region our
losses stood at Rs 80 lakh for the period.”

Apart from the loss due to zero sales, resellers in the region are also
required to meet their regular commercial expenses which include the staff
salary, rental payments, etc, and they have to meet these expenses from their
pockets. Gupta said, “We have 15 employees and we have to pay them salary even
though there was no activity at the stores. The salary alone stands at around Rs
28,000 per month, and then we have to pay rent for the premise also, which is
again something that cannot be delayed or pushed ahead.”

In the absence of any banking facility available in the region partners'
payments to vendors has been pending for long. As banks have resumed operations
at their branches in the two cities, channel partners have started drawing
cheques, overdrafts, etc in favor of their respective vendors.

For Sanjay Langer of AGM Sales Corporation, Jammu, the losses stood at a
shocking Rs 2.5 to 3 crore from sales alone. “Apart from this, we have
calculated an amount close