The commerce ministry has also formed a committee to address the concerns of stakeholders on the draft e-commerce policy
The government plans to come out with a draft national retail policy in the next 10 days amid strong opposition among small traders over the rapid expansion of online retail, led by multinationals, even as they grapple with the computerisation of their operations.
The commerce ministry has also formed a committee to address the concerns of stakeholders on the draft e-commerce policy and would come out with a final policy within a year.
Ramesh Abhishek, secretary of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, of the commerce ministry, met with the representatives of both the traditional formats as well as the modern formats of the retail trade to assess the concerns of the stakeholders.
“The draft would be released in the next 10 days to seek comments from the trader community for formulating the final policy. We expect the final policy to be released by the first week of September,” the secretary-general of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Praveen Khandelwal said. The retail trade is worth $650 billion in the country.
Khandelwal said the policy should include the upgradation and modernisation of the existing format of retail trade.
The government has almost moved to an e-system, but only 35 per cent of the 7 crore traders have computerised their businesses.
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