FDI conditions unchanged for multi-brand retail: Cong

The Congress today ruled out any"change" in the FDI policy to suit any particular company saying if Walmart leaves India, others would come.

The Congress on Tuesday ruled out any"change" in the FDI policy to suit any particular company saying if Walmart leaves India, others will come.

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"Why government should think about it? Goverment has not made the policy for one business house. Government has made a national policy and it is an open world. "If Walmart has gone, more marts are there. They will come. We are not going to change our policy. Our policy is a national policy. We are for national benefit," party spokesperson Raj Babbar told reporters.

His comments came in response to questions that the world's largest retailer Walmart has expressed its inability to the government on meeting the sourcing norm in the multi-brand segment that requires 30% procurement from small industries, stating it can procure only about 20%.

To a question about the government making some plans to bring some changes in FDI policy for some companies, he said that he was "not aware" of any such thing.

As per the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for multi-brand retail trading, at least 30 per cent of the value of procurement of manufactured/processed products shall be sourced from Indian 'small industries'.

Several global retailers have raised concern over the sourcing restriction.

In a meeting with commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma too, the global chains have flagged the issue and have demanded changing the condition to 'preferably' from 'mandatory' as in the case of single brand retail.

Although the government has permitted 51% FDI in multi-brand retail about ten months back, no formal proposal has been received by the DIPP yet.