8pm market closure cuts retailers’ revenues by 10 to 40pc

LAHORE: Pakistan’s government-imposed 8pm market closure mandate during Eid-ul-Azha 2026 cost retailers across the country between 10 and 40 percent of their projected revenues, according to a structured survey of 43 Chain Store Association of Pakistan member brands with nearly all respondents pinning their losses directly on the timing restriction rather than on any weakness in consumer demand. The survey, covering fashion apparel, footwear, grocery and lifestyle retail across 22 cities, found that 62.8 percent of participating brands recorded lower sales compared to the same period in 2025. A striking 93 percent attributed their revenue shortfall solely to the 8pm cutoff. Footfall data gathered independently by Footmetrics confirmed a national average decline of 21.15 percent, with no city emerging unaffected. Rana Tariq Mehboob, Patron-in-Chief of the Chain Store Association of Pakistan, was clear that the damage extended far beyond the storefront. “When a store closes at 8pm, the textile mill, the manufacturer, the logistics operator, the cold-chain service — all absorb the contraction,” he said. “What looks like a retail restriction is, in economic terms, a supply-chain event. And FBR continues to collect advance tax even as it restricts the conditions under which that revenue can be earned.” The observation points to a systemic concern that policymakers have so far left unaddressed: early closure mandates do not merely inconvenience retailers; they compress activity across entire supply chains, affecting manufacturers, logistics providers and service operators whose livelihoods depend on sustained retail throughput. CAP Chairman Asfandyar Farrukh offered an equally pointed diagnosis. In Pakistan’s summer months, he noted, afternoon heat keeps shoppers indoors until early evening, making the 5pm to 10pm window responsible for roughly 40 percent of daily retail sales nationwide. Cutting off trade at 8 PM, he argued, does not trim the tail end of a commercial day — it severs its most productive hours. “Federal and provincial governments should make this decision on the basis of data, not convention,” he said. The numbers that followed the restriction’s removal on 15 May 2026 made that case difficult to dispute. Within days, 95.3 percent of surveyed brands reported immediate sales recovery, with 76.7 percent recording gains of between 15 and 40 percent. Demand, the data showed, had never gone away — it had simply been blocked. All 43 member brands surveyed have unanimously backed the association’s formal request for a standardised 10pm closure time to be observed throughout the year. The Chain Store Association of Pakistan is careful to frame the demand not as a lobbying position but as an economic argument grounded in documented evidence one that points to two additional hours of taxable transactions, formal employment and supply-chain activity that, the association contends, Pakistan’s economy is currently being made to forfeit without justification. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

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