Govt will take steps to protect small retail traders: Issac

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 19 (UNI) Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac today assured the state Assembly that measures would be taken to protect the interests of 1.2 million people involved in the retail trade in the state in the wake of proposed entry of multi-nationals in the sector.

Replying to questions, the Minister said the entry of monopolies in the retail sector would adversely affect the livelihood of tens of thousands of small shopowners.

Though the government had no intention to open hyper markets on its own to counter the threat posed by multi-national companies, it proposed to take a number of initiatives to help the small traders.

It would promote shopping festivals at regional levels, besides bringing together a cluster of shops in each locality to make available a variety of products to counter the threat of hyper markets, he added.

He said the Public Distribution System (PDS) itself was one of the biggest retail network in the state that no multi-nationals could even think of it. ''We will also make it effective so as to counter monopolistic tendencies in the retail sector,'' he added.

He said a proposal from the small traders to levy additional tax on big retail chain stores was also before the government.

All possible measures would be taken by the government to protect their interests, he added.

UNI