Cash-starved small businesses defer wages amid coronavirus lockdown

India's nationwide lockdown, set to end April 14, has left millions of migrant workers stranded without any other source of income

Thousands of cash-starved Indian small businesses have either deferred or cut their workers' wages in April, say industrialists and union leaders.

All India Manufacturers Organisation (AIMO), an industry body representing some 100,000 small manufacturers, said more than two-thirds of its members faced problems in paying salaries on Tuesday, the usual day for paying monthly wages, Reuters reported.

"We have no funds to pay wages," said K.E. Raghunathan, former national president of AIMO, who runs a solar parts' manufacturing unit in the Southern Indian city of Chennai.

"Our first priority is to pay electricity bills, rent, bank loans and social security