Govt likely to release draft national retail policy in 10 days: CAIT

The government is expected to release a draft of national retail policy in the next 10 days for comments, traders' body CAIT said Tuesday after meeting DPIIT Secretary Ramesh Abhishek.

In a statement, CAIT said the secretary told it that the government has tried its best to understand the ground realities of retail trade and accordingly, a policy is being designed to relieve traders from hardships and engage them in a better way to grow their respective business in a structured manner.

"In a meeting convened by the Ministry of Commerce today (Tuesday) with trade associations for discussion on the national retail policy, DPIIT Secretary Ramesh Abhishek, who chaired the meeting, said a draft of national retail policy will be released in next 10 days seeking comments from trading fraternity," the release said.

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said they are assured that a national retail policy would streamline the retail trade in India and provide ease of doing business.

He said a national retail policy should include upgradation and modernisation of the existing format of retail trade.

The government has almost moved to e-system whereas till now, only 35 per cent of traders out of 7 crore have been able to computerised their business. Serious steps are needed to link rest of 65 per cent traders with computer system and for this, the government should provide 50 per cent subsidy to traders.

Federation of All India Vyapar Mandal General Secretary V K Bansal, who was also present in the meeting, raised the issue of protection of retail traders and sought a well-defined space for each segment of retail including traditional, online, hyper market, direct sellers and hawkers.