Retailers await trade policy

05 November 2022, Mumbai:

India has yet to formulate a national retail trade policy for all stakeholders, e-commerce players, modern trade as well as small mom-pop stores.

Small sellers feel it will bring about a level-playing field for them and provide them access to credit. Large, organized retailers feel it will help them with quicker approvals. However, a draft has been prepared for streamlining retail trade and development of all formats across the industry.

The draft is aimed at improvement in ease of doing business, ensuring easy and quick access to affordable credit, facilitating modernization and digitization of retail trade by promoting modern technology and superior infrastructural support, development of physical infrastructure across the distribution chain of retail trade, promotion of skill development and improvement of labour productivity, creation of large scale employment opportunities, and providing an effective consultative and grievance redressal mechanism for the retail sector, for the welfare of traders and their employees. But it remains a draft.

India’s market for retail trade is largely unorganized. A number of laws, compounded by state-level variations in implementation, create immense complexity for retailers, especially those with a pan-Indian footprint. This makes a comprehensive pan-India retail policy a necessity. Retailers are hoping for a fast rollout.

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