Lack of regulatory clarity hurting industry: IDSA

A lack of regulatory clarity is hurting the direct selling companies, leading to revision of projections southwards, industry body IDSA said.
On the industry's performance, Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA) secretary general Chavi Hemanth said its turnover reached Rs 7,472 crore in 2013-14 from Rs 7,164 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 6,385 crore in 2011-12.
IDSA, in association with PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, released Annual Survey Report 2013-14 on the Indian Direct Selling Industry here.
"Due to regulatory bottlenecks, the sector has marked a significant decline in its overall growth this year," she said, adding the industry may reach Rs 23,742 crore by 2019-20.

PHDCCI's chief economist S P Sharma said that on account of delayed approvals, companies are unable to introduce new products and the sourcing of existing products has become a major challenge.
"This year the industry may not be able to achieve the projected target of over Rs 10,000 crore. It may end up below Rs 10,000 crore," Sharma said.

The total sales revenue by firms during 2013-14 can be split up into two parts, Rs 7,024 crore by the companies belonging to the organised sector and Rs 448 crore by the unorganised sector, Hemanth said.
The northern region contributed around Rs 2,170 crore to the gross sales revenue in 2013-14. The eastern region has contributed around Rs 1,345 crore while the north eastern region contributed around Rs 897 crore, she said.

The western region contributed around Rs 1,197 crore while south contributed Rs 1,863 crore to overall sales, she said.
Hemanth opined that the government needs to strengthen the regulatory and policy framework for Direct Selling Industry to completely weed out the fraudulent financial pyramid schemes out of the market.