Protesting the remarks made in the ICRIER report stating ‘unorganised retailers normally do not pay taxes and most of them are not even registered for sales tax, VAT or income tax’, a large number of traders from the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), yesterday, burned a copy of the report in Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
Registering their vociferous protest against the report, CAIT termed it as ‘a biased and misleading bunch of documents’ that ignored ground realities of Indian retail trade and has made a calculated effort to promote big corporate retailers.
Speaking to Indiaretailing, Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general, CAIT, said, “The ICRIER has no authority to make such derogatory remarks against a community that has served the nation to its best despite facing many odds.”
Apart from condemning ICRIER for its remarks about traders, CAIT has also questioned the merits and genuineness of the report and has called for an open debate on a public platform.
The confederation also said that corporate retailers should be restricted to the areas of their core competence, for which they have been given various concessions by the government.
However, it must be noted that a large section of subject matter experts (SMEs) feel that the protest against modern retailing and corporate retailing is a politically motivated move and will focus on the vote bank rather than the genuine well-being of the small traders.
– Raja Ghoshal
