Traders lay down conditions for supporting political parties

JAMSHEDPUR: Buoyed by the deferment of Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 implementation by six months, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) is mounting pressure on the political parties to include in their manifesto the need for a National Traders' Policy and a dedicated ministry for the traders ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The national outfit of traders, which is hosting its two-day national convention in Delhi on February 27-28 this year, has announced that the proposed convention will determine the role of the traders vis-a-vis support to the political parties in the general elections.

"The national convention will determine our support to the political parties. Parties that will incorporate our charter of demands in their respective election manifesto will get our support in the polls," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general, CAIT.

He said the outfit that has six crore membership across country, will not allow the political parties to overlook the burning issues of the traders' community this time around.

Gross amendments in the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, scrapping of the current version of the Foreign Direct Investment in retail sector, constitution of review commission panel to study outdated and regressive trade laws and national trader's policy and separate ministry for the same are few of the prominent demands of the traders. "About six crore traders in the country are engaged in annual business of a turnover of Rs 20 lakh crore and employ 25 lakh people in the sector," said Khandelwal adding that traders in India contribute 15 percent of the GDP, each year.

The CAIT functionary who was here to garner support for the national convention said the outfit will make all effort to scrap the FDI in retail notification issued by the Union commerce ministry in 2013.

"We will impress upon the next government to scrap the notification as the present atmosphere is not conducive for the same in the country," said Khandelwal. He also demanded timely implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to ease the multiple tax burden on the traders.

Earlier on Tuesday Khandelwal, along with his associates Brijmohan Agarwal and Seema Sethi addressed the members of the Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry.