Traders body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has asked the government to annul the policy of 51% FDI in multi-brand retail sector on account of contradictory statements made by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sithraman on FDI retail notification, which has created a lot of confusion in the trading community.
BJP led government, on May 12 notified the consolidated FDI policy document, wherein it retained the previous UPA government's decision of allowing foreign retailers to open multi-brand stores with 51 per cent ownership, sparking speculations that government had now turned its side in the favour of multi-brand retail, which was its pre-election manifesto that won its commanding majority from an electorate. However, Finance minister, Arun Jaitley then said that his government was never in favour of allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and a recent government notification published only the existing policies that were decided by the UPA government.
Trades body argued that continuation of the notification allowing FDI in multi-brand retail as a policy of the present government had no logic since it was bitterly opposed by the BJP and other NDA partners. Taking this forward, CAIT representatives will soon be meeting Jaitley and Sitharaman to demand repealing of the 51 per cent FDI notification.
Besides this, the RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) and small traders, have also the BJP of doing a-U turn on the FDI issue have urged the government to scrap the policy allowing 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail. The SJM said it failed to understand the change in the BJP’s position after it came to power as in Opposition it had firmly opposed the move and had even organised a Bharat Bandh on the issue.
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