In the wake of forthcoming Union Budget, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Wednesday sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged to declare a package for small businesses in order to ensure ease of doing business and to provide better business opportunities for small traders in the Country.
CAIT National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal in memorandum to Prime Minister have demanded that traders registered under Goods and Services Tax (GST) should be given an accidental insurance of Rs 10 lakh.
To upgrade and modernise the existing business format of the traders and to link them with computers, a subsidy should be given to traders for purchasing computers and allied goods, stated the release issued by CAIT. It is noteworthy to mention that so far only about 35 per cent small businesses out of seven crore could able to adopt computers, it said.
The CAIT has urged the Prime Minister to conduct a nationwide survey of retail trade to gather financial and social status of the retail sector. "There are about seven crore small businesses in the Country providing livelihood to about 30 crore people and generating an annual turnover of about Rs 42 lakh crores," it said.
Khandelwal also urged that the traders should be given loan by the banks at concessional rate of interest. So far only 5 per cent of the small businesses could able to obtain loans from banks and financial institution and remaining 95 per cent are dependent upon private moneylenders, relatives and other private sources for their financial needs.
The CAIT also urged that direct lending by banks under 'Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency' (MUDRA) scheme should be disband and non banking finance companies. "Micro finance institutions and private moneylenders duly registered should be roped in to lend the money to beneficiaries and the banks should lend money at concessional rate of interest to these institutions," it said.
It also said that on the line of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) a separate authority should be created for regulating Mudra scheme.
A demand to set up 'Trade Promotion Council' was also made which would act as bridge between traders and the Government. All digital payments should be free from levy of bank charges in order to encourage digital payment in the Country, Bhartia and Khandelwal said.
As of now banks are charging one to two per cent charges for digital payment transactions which discourage the adoption of digital payments.
The trade leaders further requested the Prime Minister to launch a special scheme for encouraging more and more women to become entrepreneurs. A Model Tenancy Act should be brought in the wake of increasing litigations between landlords and tenants in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities, it demanded.