FE Report
The caretaker government is most likely to extend the closing time for shops by one hour to 8:0 pm in response to the pleas from shop-owners.
Energy and Power Adviser Tapan Chowdhury at a meeting with the shop owners Sunday hinted at the extension and assured them of placing the mater before the Council of Advisers for endorsement.
"If the advisory council approves the proposal you will be allowed to keep your shops open up to 8:0 pm," he told the leaders of the shop owners.
A delegation of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association (BSOA) Sunday met with the energy and power adviser at his office in the secretariat to place their demand formally.
During the meeting the BSOA delegation, led by Amir Hossain and Helal Uddin, claimed that the shop owners had to incur substantial losses due to the cut in business hour.
"Normally, 30 per cent of our businesses takes place during the period between 7:0 pm and 8:0 pm," BSOA president Amir Hossain said during the meeting.
The caretaker government has initiated 'electricity rationing' for the first time in the country by limiting business hour in the shopping malls across the country to 7.0 pm since February 25, 2006.
Shop owners across the country are now closing their shops in compliance with the government decision at 7:0pm, three hours before their normal closing time of 10 pm.
Kitchen markets, restaurants, fastfood shops, drug stores, grocery shops and small shops along lanes and by-lanes, however, have been kept outside of the purview of the government's electricity rationing arrangement.
Tapan Chowdhury said that the restrictions helped the government save electricity to the tune between 300 megawatt (MW) to 400MW across the country.
City shops may remain open until 8pm
FE Team | Published: July 02, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
Share if you like