New Delhi: India’s apex traders’ body, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), has urged the Union Finance Minister for financial support policies for small traders in Union Budget 2023.
CAIT said that apart from advising the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ensure smooth and easy access to finance to the trading community, the Finance Minister should spell out a policy in the budget to lay special emphasis on Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) for lending to small businesses. It also said that banks and financial institutions should strengthen NBFCs and MFIs by providing requisite finance at a lower rate of interest so that both these lending institutions provide finance to small businesses at a lower interest rate.
“Such a policy will greatly supplement the financial requirements of small businesses and will help the retail trade in exponentially utilising its capacities and capabilities,” said CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal.
Praveen Khandelwal said that the trading community has been grossly neglected by the successive governments post-independence and no support policies were ever made for the retail trade of India.
“Absence of a policy and a separate Ministry for Internal Trade is an ample testimony of the apathy towards the trading community,” CAIT said in a communication sent to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.
However, CAIT National President B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Khandelwal also added that it is only at the initiative of CAIT and with holistic approach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Department for Industry was added with Internal Trade and now the National Retail Policy is under draft stage in Ministry of Commerce.
In the letter written to the Finance Minister, CAIT said that business community in India is facing a huge crunch of financial liquidity during the last many decades. It said that the RBI has failed to provide easy access to finances for the traders if the country which in turn is causing under utilisation of capacities and capabilities of the business community of the turning into a total loss situation to the national economy.
“It does not deem fit to consult the trade association ever to understand their financial needs though the non corporate sector excluding agriculture is contributing magnificently to national exchequer and after agriculture, the largest employment provider in the country yet the retail trade could not find any place in financial policies,” it said.
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