Mumbai, Sep 16: A day after the central government cleared way for foreign direct investment in retail sector, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan took the lead and announced Saturday said the new policy would be implemented soon in the state.
"We shall study the entire policy in detail and initiate necessary measures to implement it soon in Maharashtra," Chavan said.
The ruling Congress in the state is being supported by its alliance partner, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), on the FDI issue.
"In the present situation, owing to natural and other factors, the state has to suffer 40 percent losses in the production of fruits and vegetables. Moreover, due to a chain of middlemen, farmers get low returns for their agro products while customers are compelled to pay manifold for the same," Chavan said.
With the proposed FDI in retail, these types of losses would be prevented and the agricultural community will benefit, he added.
Even ordinary customers would benefit in terms of proper pricing of goods and commodities and avail of the advantages of leading multi-branded retail chains.
Chavan added that the policy would prove a boon to literate or illiterate unemployed youth in the state by opening up employment avenues in food, clothing, construction, packing, information technology, transport and cold storage, besides other basic infrastructure facilities.
He admitted that traditional retail and neighbourhood shops would suffer but the systematic and modified retail setup will open up large number of vacancies at various levels to accommodate them.
The Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC) Saturday said that a day after raising diesel prices by 12 percent and reducing the subsidy burden on the economy, the government hiked FDI in multi-brand retail.
"The government has clearly dispelled the notion of policy paralysis, which was one of the key concerns of the investor community," said IMC chairman Niranjan Hiranandani.
Hiranandani said that the new policy would help create many more jobs in the Indian economy and boost levels of investment.
Similarly, enhancing the FDI in the aviation sector will benefit the ultimate consumer by increasing competition and introducing global best practices and in the power sector it would provide a major stimulus to reforms badly needed to propel India into the economic superpower league, he said.
Hiranandani urged the Reserve Bank of India to take a hint from the new developments and "grab the golden opportunity" to slash interest rates in its policy review Monday (Sep 17) since the government has already taken the first step to boost confidence of the investing community.
