In its effort to modernise the retail sector, the Retailers Association of India has called for an integrated national retail policy to support and guide retail policies being charted out by various State governments.

“While Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have taken the lead in announcing retail policies, a model national retail policy will provide broader general guidelines for the retail sector, which is the second largest employer engaging more than 33 million people,” said Kumar Rajagopalan, Chief Executive Officer of the Retailers Association of India (RAI). Welcoming the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) notification on Tuesday clarifying guidelines with regards to e-commerce in India and market places, Rajagopalan said this is one major step towards facilitating retail in the country.

Broader guidance

“Though retail is a State subject and often guided by the Shops and Establishments Act, as a representative of the retail industry, which is a $600-billion market, up from $520 billion last year, we believe that a central model policy, which factors in the various ministries–— industries, commerce, finance, labour etc — will provide the broader general guidance,” he told BusinessLine .

“Even though the retail sector has grown to be a $600-billion industry and projected to become a $1 trillion business by 2020 with e-commerce contributing to about $90 billion up from $10 billion now, there is arbitrariness in the way retail is handled in the country. It is still guided by the likes of Shops and Establishments Act, which is part of the Labour Ministry even though various other ministries are necessary parties when it comes to attracting investments,” he explained.

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