The strike as been called against fuel price hike, and for violation of labour laws. Trade unions claim around 10 lakh bank employees will strike work in nearly 90,000 bank branches across the country.

KOLKATA: While sharing some of their concerns like rising prices, Assocham on Tuesday appealed to the central trade unions to call off their two-day strike as the country's economy will take a hit of big hit of Rs 15,000-20,000 crore from the nation-wide disruption in economic activity.

"The national economy, battling slowdown can ill-afford this situation. In fact, the strike would aggravate the price situation because of disruption in the supply line of essential commodities", said Mr. Rajkumar Dhoot president, Assocham. Mr. Dhoot further said the strike would cripple mostly the services sector like banking, insurance and transport, besides the industrial production. Even the agriculture would be affected as the movement of vegetables, highly perishable items, would be disrupted.

The Assocham has estimated the national loss figures based on the daily erosion of about 30-40 per cent to the country's Gross Domestic Production (GDP) for two days. As per the advanced estimates of the CSO, the national GDP for the current financial year is projected to be about Rs 95 lakh crore. In other words, it is Rs 26,000 crore per day and Rs 52,000 crore for two days. Of this , the strike would take its toll on at least 30-40 per cent - Rs 15,000 crore-Rs 20, 000 crore.

"Given the nature of the strike and involvement of the all the five major central trade unions, it is going to affect largely the services sector including the banking, financial services, tourism, transportation etc, which are the major contributors to the country's GDP", added Mr. Dhoot. States like West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka and parts of Uttar Pradesh are likely to be affected significantly.

Besides, banking operations including the cheque clearances and some segments of the financial markets would take a hit. Moreover, disruption in railways and other public transportation in major cities would hit the movement of the workforce and the cargo operations at the ports. The cargo operations both at the airport and ports are likely to be affected, the chamber apprehends.

"Our conservative estimates show that at least 30-40 per cent of the daily GDP would take a hit. For two days, it would be something like Rs 15,000-20,000 crore," reveals the Assocham Economic Research (AER) department. Expressing concerns over the impending strike, the Mr. Dhoot said, it would not be in the interest of the country's economy to stop work in the crucial sectors.

"While we share some of the concerns like rising prices, the solution lies in working together to ensure that the situation is brought under control by raising production and pumping up the supply. The strike, in fact would put further pressure on the price situation as the prices of vegetables etc would immediately go up because of disruption".