National policies on e-commerce, retail trade, logistics, industry in final stage of drafting: Som P

The government has set up a National Traders’ Welfare Board aimed at welfare of traders and their employees, simplification of the Acts and rules applicable to traders, reduction of compliance burden and improvement in access to funds for traders.

NEW DELHI: Minister of state for commerce and industry Som Parkash on Wednesday said that the government is in the final stages of drafting a National Logistics Policy, New Industrial Policy, e-commerce Policy and National Retail Trade policy. The retail trade policy will benefit 65 million small traders, he said at an event organised by Ficci.

“It is being formulated to support the development of the sector that will benefit 65 million small traders. These endeavours along with the support of the industry would help in contributing a significant chunk to India’s GDP,” he added.

The government has set up a National Traders’ Welfare Board aimed at welfare of traders and their employees, simplification of the Acts and rules applicable to traders, reduction of compliance burden and improvement in access to funds for traders.

Parkash said that the government will extend all support to the e-commerce and retail industry through various policies.

The draft e-commerce policy had proposed that companies that store or mirror Indian users’ data overseas will be subject to periodic audit and a regulator for the sector and an ecommerce law that restricts information these firms can store, use, transfer, process and analyse. It also empowers the government to review, investigate and take action against any ecommerce activity that threatens the country’s security.

The draft logistics policy seeks to reduce logistics costs in the country to 10% of the GDP from around 13-14% now.

As for the new industrial policy, the government aims to create jobs for the next two decades and attract $100 billion foreign direct investment annually through it. This will be the third industrial policy, after the first in 1956 and next in 1991.

Source: https://m-economictimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/m.economictimes.com/news/economy/policy/national-policies-on-e-commerce-retail-trade-logistics-industry-in-final-stage-of-drafting-som-parkash/amp_articleshow/78914233.cms