According to the All India Association of Industries estimate, each day of bank closure costs the economy a loss of Rs 100 crore. With all government departments including administrative and supervisory activity coming to a halt, transportation and goods movement is hampered greatly, says K R Sinha, adviser, Federation of Indian Exporters Organisation (FIEO). He notes that it is difficult to quantify in terms of money the cumulative losses accruing from such holidays.

Indian exporters have been unable to meet their commitments abroad due to such closures, rues Sinha saying that FIEO has asked the government to accordsignificance to exports and make alternative arrangements to ensure that goods movement is not affected during such holidays.

However, the Reserve Bank of India directed all the nationalised banks to remain open on the weekend in a bid to compensate for preceding three offs due to Id, Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday to avoid inconvenience to industry and people. The customs offices in Delhi and Mumbai also remained open during the weekend to facilitate business.

P K Gupta, general manager of Punjab National Bank, conceding that although banking activity is affected, in case of pre-determined holidays, business houses and the general public can plan their activities much in advance to avoid problems.

Credit cards and multinational banks that have been able to attract upmarket consumers have to an extent reduced the impact of such holidays. But people and business outside the metros are affected as only state-run banks operate there.

While Gupta says that few nationalised banks have the wherewithal tokeep thousands of their branches in the country open on minimal staff, Vijay Kalantari, president of the All India Association of Industries is reported to have said that banks would face an overtime bill of Rs 36 crore in the process. ``However, this appears to be a small price to pay given that the cumulative losses due to the holidays in April would amount to Rs 1,000 crore,'' he says.

Sinha points out that other than banks there are a host of departments that involve interaction with the public like seeking clearances from activities ranging from a mild construction in a house to getting business proposals cleared.

With an activity like packaging of a consignment also requiring the supervision of an inspector, who will not be available on such holidays, the loss is just to be imagined to be believed, he says.

Welcoming the RBI's instruction this year, the manager says it's high time the government follows suit and adopts a more pragmatic approach towards celebrating festivals. In similar vein, ahigh ranking official of the ministry of personnel, requesting anonymity says, ``Politicians feel that holidays reflect secularism, which is not the case.'' He opined that in a highly diverse cultural society as in India it is not in the overall interest of the state to have holidays, which ``are far too many''.

The Fifth Pay Commission had last year recommended cutting down holidays after which the number of casual leaves that a government servant could avail in a year was brought down from 12 to eight.

However, the number of gazetted offs remained 17 as before, the official said citing that there was a lot of opposition from trade unions when the casual leaves were reduced.

After a similar string of holidays that brought to a halt all economic activity when former premier Morarji Desai died, the government decided not to announce holidays on the demise of ex-presidents and ex-premiers.