The association has suggested that only Independence Day, Republic Day and state-formation days be declared as holidays. The rest of the holidays should be left to the discretion of trade and industry. It pegs revenue losses due to frequent holidays at around Rs 100 crore and exports losses, Rs 40 crore per day. According to Kalantri, manufacturers are unable to keep their commitments and suffered from increased production costs.

Quoting South Korea as an example he said working hours had been increased from 48 hours to 56 hours per week for better productivity. Banks in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Bangladesh workedhalf-day even on Sundays and from 8 am to 7 pm on other days. As opposed to this, India had less working hours and more holidays. It had 25 public holidays and 31 restricted holidays excluding Saturdays and Sundays as compared to Iran which had only three holidays, and USA and Israel which had 16 days.

In view of the current market conditions and growing competition, stores in the US and UK were now working full days even on weekends. The Indian government should also do away with the 5-day week concept for government and public sector units. As for banks, the Reserve Bank should have exercised its powers to keep both Saturday and Sunday full working days, he added.