Businesses decide on 8pm closure for shops, shopping malls across Bangladesh

The move excludes hotels, pharmacies, essential services, and kitchen markets

Bangladesh shop owners have decided to close all stores, retail outlets and shopping malls by 8pm to help the government save electricity and fuel amid an international energy shortage.

The decision came on Thursday through a media statement from the Bangladesh Shop Owners Association, following a joint meeting of its standing committee and the Dhaka Metropolitan Shop Owners' Association.

The move is aimed at supporting government efforts to conserve electricity and fuel during the ongoing global energy crisis, the statement said.

Hotels, pharmacies, shops providing essential services and kitchen markets will be exempt from the early closing rule, ensuring critical services remain accessible to the public, it added.

Asked about the decision, Md Arifur Rahman Tipu, general secretary of the Bangladesh Shop Owners' Association, said the organisation had yet to come up with a specific estimate of how much power and fuel the decision would save.

“No calculations have been done on this,” he said. “During the coronavirus pandemic, under such circumstances, we used to close stores after 8pm. Now we think that we should go back to that situation.”

Tipu said store owners were previously used to closing their shops after 8pm, so it should not cause them any additional difficulty.

He said there had been no instruction from the government on the matter and that businessmen had taken the initiative themselves.

“There was no order from the government. We are doing this through a collective initiative,” he said.

Md Nazmul Hasan Mahmud, president of the Bangladesh Shop Owners' Association, said the decision had been taken at a standing committee meeting on Wednesday.

The organisation has nearly 2,000 members, he said.