Govt likely to review FDI guidelines in multi-brand retail sector

28 Jun 2013 Evaluate

In an order to address concerns of the foreign retailers, the government has assured them that it will review the stringent investment conditions imposed on foreign investment in the multi-brand retail sector. The government almost nine months ago had allowed foreign investment up to 51% in multi-brand retail, but imposed many conditions on such investment, which created confusion among the foreign retailers regarding multi-brand guidelines.    

To solve issues in foreign direct investment (FDI) norms, the government held a meeting with retail industry on June 27, which was attended by both foreign and domestic retail companies, including Walmart, Tesco, Metro, Carrefour, Bharti, Aditya Birla Group, Tatas, Reliance and Pantaloon among others.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said that early and appropriate view will be taken on all areas of concern. He further stated that the objective of the policy is to encourage job creation, investments and benefit to the farmers and consumers and the government has sufficient space to address these concerns to bring more clarity in the FDI guidelines, adding that the commerce and industry ministry is planning to issue revised guidelines with greater clarity on issues.

Retailers sought clarifications on sourcing issue in which foreign retailer must source 30 per cent of the items that it sells in India from small industries. They also asked for a relaxation in the rules for investment in the back-end infrastructure as the current policy says that 50 per cent of first tranche of the mandatory minimum $100 million FDI must go in the back-end infrastructure and not in buying land and building.

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