I stay in one of those relatively quiet streets which does
not have too much of traffic by virtue of it being a cul-de-sac. The other side
of the coin is that the street is targeted as a free parking spot by everyone
who knows of its location.
We often used to find that autorikshaws would be left parked
through the night and they would then disappear in the morning. Given the
current scenario where one never knows what danger lurks in such unknown
vehicles the residents complained to the traffic police and they finally got
the autos removed.
It was quite a surprise to learn that these autos were owned
by a flower vendor. I shall come back to this.
Today morning while out for a walk I saw a person come in a
scooter, park it, open a Maruti Van and get ready to drive away. I stopped this
person and asked him who he was and why he had parked the van in the street? He
said that the van also belongs to the flower vendor whose autos had been
removed. He further explained that they park all the vehicles here as it was
safe!
Now, this flower vendor typically stands outside a
supermarket on the main road and sells flowers which are piled up on a wicker
tray, mounted to his cycle. His typical bargaining point is how a few rupees
will not make a difference to the customer but is a big difference to him. The
poor guy!
This poor guy owns a couple of autos, a Maruti van, a
scooter and that’s only what we have come to know. Obviously he pays no sales
tax or any other government levies although he uses all the civic amenities. As
often mentioned by me, I do admire the business acumen of these Indian traders.
At the same time, it is such smart and savvy people that the government wants
to protect because of which the FDI debate is raging.
If FDI is allowed and corporate Retail grows there will be
more accountability, increased tax inflows and more credible employment opportunities.
Why are we avoiding this step forward?
In this context I had participated in a panel
discussion about this topic organised by SSN School of Management & Computer Applications and The Business Line Club. (The coverage
about this event can be found on this URL - It wont be a cakewalk for foreign retailers). One of the participants asked
the mandatory question of whether FDI will kill the small Retailer. I do wish I
can bring him and introduce him to the poor flower vendor who owns a few autos,
Maruti van, etc. etc.
2 comments:
Dear Rajesh,
We cant give everything to corporates. They have great access to capital which this vendor on cycle doesnt have. He toiled hard for this for years & all he could do is to get only a few autos and maruti van. No such guarantee that the FDI in retail would increase tax collection. Tax the existing corporates effectively. That would be good enough.
A few clarifications. Retail suffers from lack of industry status which means capital is difficult and thats one of the reasons why FDI is needed. Definitely FDI will increase tax revenue simply because Corporate Retail needs documented billing as a process control which is not something that the vendor needs to do.
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