Offline phone retailers approach home ministry to restart shops

New Delhi: Offline phone retailers have knocked the doors of home ministry to allow reopening of stores for a designated time with limited staff and area-wise home delivery of orders from April 20 as inventory worth crores of rupees lies locked in 150,000 brick-and-mortar stores.

“We recommend allowing all physical shops dealing on sales, repair and service activity of mobile phones, mobile devices (laptops and tablets) and their supporting accessories to be opened on a limited basis (three days a week for five hours) with limited number of staff,” the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) said in an April 17 letter to union home minister Amit Shah.

Kerala and some cities like Nagpur have already allowed such services to commence in a controlled manner, AIMRA president Arvinder Khurrana said.