Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Reality Check!

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.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

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.

VR said...

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.

shreept said...

Dear Rajesh,

Very informative indeed. Remind of an incident a long time back when a differently abled beggar had met with an accident and was taken to the Govt Hospital for treatment in Coimbatore. Supposedly, inspite of bleeding profusely, he was reluctant to part with the "jhola" that he was carrying. They had to sedate him to start the treatment and get the bag out of his hand. What they found was 1 lakh in cash in various forms of coins and notes and a bank pass book!!!!

Don't know how much truth there is in this but this was there in news for some time those days. :)

shreept said...

Dear Rajesh,

Very informative indeed. Remind of an incident a long time back when a differently abled beggar had met with an accident and was taken to the Govt Hospital for treatment in Coimbatore. Supposedly, inspite of bleeding profusely, he was reluctant to part with the "jhola" that he was carrying. They had to sedate him to start the treatment and get the bag out of his hand. What they found was 1 lakh in cash in various forms of coins and notes and a bank pass book!!!!

Don't know how much truth there is in this but this was there in news for some time those days. :)

Anonymous said...

A story few "poor" vendors cannot talk of the majority.

Honesty and dedication to the nation are not virtues of the general Indian community..... which is why the nation had "foreign" rule for centuries.....and has seen scams emanate from each file in the recent past.

Since "Self service" takes precedence over societal norms & requirements we will continue to have panwalas, phoolwalas, politicians etal flourishing looking through loopholes of law than obeying it.....while the silent majority suffer.

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