Amit Mitra has travelled a long way on the retail story. From a hesitant supporter of the government?s plan to open up the sector in 2006 to a full-blooded war cry to do away with ?archaic laws and regulations for the sector? a year later and now deep concerns on FDI in the sector is a journey, no less, for the West Bengal finance minister.
In the interregnum, Mitra as Ficci secretary general authored Organised retail: Unfinished agenda & the challenges ahead in April 2007. On the release of the book, Mitra said: ?FDI in retail has to be permitted in order to ensure expansion of organised retailing in the country.?
Mitra in fact went further. To ensure organised retail made headway in the country, he suggested in 2009 that it should be included within the priority sector for bank lending.
Since agriculture and the small-scale sector too figure in the priority sector, he obviously saw no contradiction in packaging the three. Last week, however, he said he was concerned with the impact of foreign direct investment in retail with respect to the SME sector.
His position in the mid-2000s was quite in sync with the zeal for the sector demonstrated by Ficci president Rajan Bharti Mittal. But Mitra’s leader now, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, has said she is resolutely opposed to allowing FDI in multi-brand retail.
The state finance minister had said during his Ficci days that along with pensions, retail should see a large inflow of overseas capital. Commenting on an Icrier report that for the first time examined the rationale for foreign capital into India, Mitra was emphatic. ?With regard to FDI limit, the (Icrier) report on the retail market is expected to be out soon. Thereafter, the chamber would discuss the limit and other issues with the government.?
The Ficci report of 2007 on organised retail had also asked for industry status to retailing as the first basic step required for reforming the sector. The report also highlighted the need to improve infrastructure facilities. The bottom line: ?Archaic laws and regulations should be done away with,? he had explained.
Mitra was also clear that if state governments proved recalcitrant in changing laws like the APMC Act that sets limit on inter-state movement of farm products and is a major barrier to big retail, the Centre should provide for a unified licence (to companies) for operating in all markets in a state, ensure direct procurement from farmers? fields and help setting up of private market yard, contract farming, and e-auction trading. This was January 2008. Mitra seems the latest convert to the BJP line on retail: What was correct then is not so now.