It has been a month since the government allowed 44 types of industries to resume their operations after ensuring necessary health safety measures to avoid contagion of coronavirus. However, it has been found that 70 percent industries across the country have remained shut down. According to study conducted by the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) over two-thirds of industrial and service sector enterprises have not come into operation despite the government announcement.

GEFONT surveyed 323 industrial enterprises from Biratnagar to Kailali for the study. According to GEFONT, only 17 percent industries in areas of pharmaceuticals, food processing and soft drinks, construction materials industries and healthcare institutions are fully operational at present. Similarly, 13.63 percent are partly operational. As per the report, the continuation of lockdown has made it very hard for businesses to restart their activities.

GEFONT prepared the ‘Fast Track Survey Report on Problems Faced by Workers due Covid-19’ comprising five topics related to operational status of industrial enterprises, salary payment, affiliation to Social Security Fund and wages situation of informal sector migrant workers.  According to the report, industrial enterprises have not complied to the government directive to pay salaries of March-April (Chaitra) and April-May (Baisakh). Only 42.10 percent industries have distributed salaries for the March-April and 31.57 percent industries haven’t disbursed full amount of salaries of workers since then.  

Meanwhile, industrialists say that their inability to restart industries are due to lack of workers, problems in transportation and market access, and non-payment of due amount from the market. The lack of coordination among agencies in local levels is another major hindrance, they say. “Just by asking to resume industrial activities in not enough. There should be backward and forward integration in this regard and an environment to allow employees to return their workplaces,” said Chandra Dhakal, vice president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI). “Industrialists and employees of industrial enterprises are facing problems to receive the travel passes issued by the government. The inter-ministerial coordination is even weaker to ease problems in travel and transportation,” he added. Dhakal commented that it has already gotten late to resume business activities by adopting health safety standards as the lockdown has done significant damage to the country’s economy.