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| Assocham seeks industry status for organised retail sector |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jun 05, 2009, 17:00 IST |
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Business chamber Assocham has asked the government to accord industry status to organised retail sector, which would improve investment inflows into the sector and increase its share in this segment.
The move would increase the share of organised retail in the overall sector to 20-22 per cent from the current 3 per cent, Assocham said.
The chamber has submitted a note to the Ministries of Commerce and Industry and Consumer Affairs stating that granting industry status to the organised retail sector is the first step needed to reform the Indian retail industry.
"This (industry status) may also facilitate the provision of fiscal incentives, insurance norms and easy availability of credit," it said.
The share of organised retail is expected to rise significantly with over $30 billion investment being planned in the coming five to seven years, it said.
Further, it said, the aim is to bring the retail sector at par with other countries. Simultaneously, India needs to study the mechanism adopted by other nations as to how they have grown over the years and what sort of fiscal and regulatory mechanism they have adopted.
Besides, Assocham has also mooted a proposal for introduction of comprehensive legislation, elimination of multiple licences and immediate strengthening of the commodity exchanges for the organised retail sector. The industry body said if a comprehensive and futuristic legislation is enacted, the development of the sector can take place at a faster pace.
The legislation should provide broad parameters within which the retail sector should operate and day–to-day functioning and other modalities should be prescribed in the rules, it said.
Currently, retail operations need to obtain multiple licences and permits ranging from basic trading licences to pollution clearances resulting in long and costly process.
"It is important to ensure that clearances required by the retailers should be done at once. There should be a proper time frame within which these approvals should be granted," Assocham said.
On the infrastructure of existing commodities exchanges, the chamber said, it should be improved and more powers should be given to them. The government must ensure that speculative transactions should not take place in the market.
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