UPTO 20% RETAIL TRADE ONLY BE ALLOWED FOR E-COMMERCE TRADE
Nagpur :- The initiative by the DPIIT to roll out National Retail Trade Policy is a welcome step and will certainly boost the retail trade of India to a next level. It meets with the long pending demand of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and hence we appreciate this move-said CAIT National President B.C.Bhartia & Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal, in a joint statement today. They strongly said that the policy must contain a specific provision that only up to 20% of the retail trade should be allowed to be conducted online. They further demanded that the stakeholders must be taken into confidence before implementing the same.
Bhartia & Khandelwal said that the Indian retail trade market is Rs.130 lakh crore annually with a 10% growth rate every year but unfortunately, the retail trade in India is the only vertical of Country’s retail trade which neither have a separate Ministry nor a policy. Therefore, the National Retail Trade Policy will prove to be a booster for the economy and Trade & commerce of the Country. It is to be noted that about 80% retail trade is conducted by traditional retailers i.e. non corporate retail, about 10% by corporate retail, about 7% by e-commerce and about 3% by Direct selling.
Bhartia & Khandelwal however said that without an e-commerce policy and codified rules and regulations for e-commerce trade, the National Retail Trade Policy will prove to be a half baked exercise which will be only partially beneficial. The retail trade has four verticals corporate retail, non-corporate retail, e-commerce and direct selling and therefore the National Retail Trade Policy should have a consolidated and comprehensive policy under which all the four verticals can work in tandem and no overlapping by one another should be allowed.
Both trade leaders said that the CAIT in its proposition submitted earlier to the DPIIT for National Retail Trade Policy has suggested defined parameters in the policy for conducting business activities in India beside other issues including easy access to financial assistance, abrogation of laws and rules governing retail trade, which are archaic and have lost their relevance in the current business scenario, on the pattern of One Nation-One Tax, there should be One Nation-One License, Redefining of Credit Rating norms for traders, support policy for upgradation & modernization of existing retail trade, Pension & insurance for traders, compensation to traders due to any natural calamity, special policy to empower Women Entrepreneurs and youth of business families etc.
