Jamshedpur, Sept. 27 : Traders of Jamshedpur on Thursday took out a torch procession from Chamber Bhawan in Bistupur to extend their support to Bharat Bandh call given by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), an apex body of trading community of India on September 28. The procession was led by Suresh Sonthalia, former president of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Several business organisations have given call to shut their establishments.
The markets across the country will remain closed on 28 September while observing Bharat Trade Bandh and traders will take out protest march in their respective cities across the country,” said a functionary.
The size of the retail market of India is almost Rs 43 lakh crore. Apart from contributing substantially to the GDP, the retail segment absorbs major human resources and plays a significant role in employment generation.
�We understand that big multinationals are equally important for a growing economy. But what we want from the government is to put in place policies, like the US, whereby multinational giants cannot take over the retail trade and the interests of small retailers are safeguarded,� noted an official of Chamber.
He said that if such FDI is allowed in retail, the sector would be unable to compete with the big multinationals at one point of time while the latter would attain monopoly and start increasing prices of products.
Some of the other demands of CAIT include formulation of a robust and transparent policy for e-commerce, withdrawal of permission of 100 per cent FDI in single brand retail, declaration of a national trade policy for retail trade and constitution of a separate ministry of internal trade for traders.
