President of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association (BSOA) Helal Uddin said they were expecting the government permission to keep shops open until midnight.
They had sent a letter to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Sunday seeking four more hours for trading until midnight by maintaining the health safety guidelines amid the pandemic.
The extended opening hours of the shops during the ongoing Ramadan will facilitate the shoppers to buy their desired clothes and goods on the occasion of the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr, the association thinks.
From April 25 onwards, the government allowed shops, markets and shopping malls to operate from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm everyday by following the health safety guidelines during the ongoing lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The traders at New Market, Chadni Chwalk Shopping Complex, Noorjahan Market, Elephant Road and Gulistan areas told the FE on Monday that they hardly get significant number of customers during evening (after Iftar) due to the timeline for closing shops, markets and shopping malls at 8:00 pm everyday during the month of fasting.
They said that private service holders after their offices at 4:00 pm usually rush to the markets for shopping until Iftar.
They thought that most of the customers do not prefer to go outside their homes for shopping after Iftar due to the present closing time (8:00pm).
BSOA president mentioned that as there are only a few days to celebrate the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr, so there could be a scope for the traders to gear up their volume of sells during the rest of the days of Ramadan that would be highly helpful for them to offset a little bit of their financial losses caused by pandemic.
