The Corona Virus has of course created a lot of scare in the world – and we still have no clue about how to handle the situation. When fuel prices in the world dropped Indian authorities immediately raised taxes – so we have not felt the impact of lower prices. Sadly I am yet to hear anything useful from the Government of India, and that is scary. Not even heard that there will be no penalty for delay in filing the GST returns, IT returns, or a tax cut – NOTHING at all.

Already tens of thousands of jobs are being lost – and this can be seen in the hordes of people leaving Mumbai and Pune and heading back to UP, Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal,…nothing really can stop them. Small businesses, drivers, eateries, drivers driving Uber and Ola – name it, and they are going back. Job losses should be in big numbers – 10 million jobs being lost is an easy estimate. We can only guess because the government figures about low end jobs etc. is non existent.

Why can’t the government come and say the following –

• temporary increase of 80C to Rs. 5L – valid till 2025
• no LTCG till 2025
• GST delay will not be penalised
• GST dates of filing returns relaxed by 90 days
• Income tax holiday for 2 years for airline, hotels, restaurants, event managers
• One EMI waiver for car and housing emi – for commercial vehicles and housing

Will this change things dramatically? no. However at least people will get a feeling that Neromala is not just listening to classical music or playing the ….! However, knowing the government we know that no such thing will happen.

At the equity market level perhaps the worst has been priced in. However mass scale rejection of Tee-shirts, and other items will take a huge, huge hit. Life is not going to be easy for anyone of us. With so many events being cancelled, flights being merged, hotels staring at empty rooms, the situation is scary. Immediate impact would be the SIP figure will slip from 8k crores to say 4k crores before it revives.

The suddenness with which this has hit us is stunned us into wondering what hit us. The economy is in a standstill – and everybody except the government knows that. Airlines, hotels, event organisers, exporters, have been hit the hardest. I spoke to a few small retailers, hoteliers, etc. – they have not been hit by the fall in buying power, but I guess they will be hit soon. The lowest end labor is on its way back from the big cities (expecting to have no business) to their villages (where there are no testing facilities). The whole transition lasting a few months is not going to be easy. The government looks like it has no clue about what to do – and that seems to be the worst thing to happen.

Scary? Well, like they say “picture abhi baki hai mere dost”