CAIT to prepare database of traders, their employees across India

NEW DELHI: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Thursday said it will prepare a database of traders and their employees working in all states and union territories across India, on lines of the National Population Register (NPR).

The exercise, which will begin from March 1 and get over by September 30, is aimed at better addressing the basic problems of traders across the country, CAIT said.

“It is being done so that the government can formulate policies for business class based on that data,” CAIT Delhi-NCR unit Chairman Sushil Kumar Jain said in a statement.

He said the idea for the database came from Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who made the suggestion during a business conference organised by CAIT in Delhi on Monday.

“CAIT has accepted that Minister Goyal’s suggestion is very logical and this data will be of great importance in seeking the right to facilities from Centre and other states for retail trade of the country and to formulate a support policy for business,” Jain said.

According to a survey of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), there are about 7 crore small businesses in the country and they employee about 45 crore people, CAIT National President B C Bhartia and National General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal said.

These businesses have a turnover of about Rs 45 lakh crore per year, according to the statement.

“No government has taken a single step to prepare its data for such an important sector of the country’s economy, which is very unfortunate,” it said.

“There is a separate policy for all other sections related to the retail sector and there is also a ministry, but there is no policy or any ministry for retail business. After this data is prepared, CAIT will very strongly demand to form a ministry for retailers separately,” it added.