A Certificate Program in Laws Relating to Retail in India was conducted at Kenilworth Hotel, Kolkata on 30 & 31st July 2024. The program saw participation of around 20 participants.
The presenters were Adv. Gopal Naik & Adv. Darshan G Naik from Vision Law; G. R. Srikkanth from RP Sanjiv Goenka Group and Debarshi Mukherjee from Coursera shared their expertise with the team.
An insightful webinar on "Impact of Budget 2024 and recent GST amendments and judgements on the retail industry" was hosted by the RAI on 01st August 2024.
Theme of the webinar: How do retail companies gear up to comply with the Budget 2024 changes and recent GST amendments?
Speakers:
The restaurant industry strictly adheres to the guidelines and using Synthetic Magnesium Silicate as prescribed. Still, the State Food Safety Department of Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been issuing notices, causing confusion and operational challenges within the industry. RAI appealed to the FSSAI Department to intervene in this regard and support the ease of doing business initiative
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has issued Quality Control Orders (QCOs) for footwear to ensure quality and safety for consumers. The QCOs are legal requirements that mandate a BIS license for certain footwear products. These orders cover footwear made from leather, rubber, polymeric materials, and other materials.
RAI delegation had a series of meetings in this regard with the Hon Minister - Shri Piyush Goyal ji and senior officials from DPIIT - Ministry of Commerce & Industry along with BIS over the last four years.
We are pleased to inform you that DPIIT has accepted RAI's recommendation wrt QCOs implementation on footwear and permitted liquidation of legacy stock (non-BIS stock) imported and manufactured on or before 31st July 2024, till 31 July, 2026 without any declarations.
Please click on the links below to view the latest notifications:
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This move will provide a great relief to the footwear industry
Despite the official permission to operate round-the-clock, retailers have reported instances where the retail establishments are being compelled to cease operations at midnight by police authorities. Although, retail establishments have duly submitted applications for the necessary permissions and fulfilled the requisite fee payments, there has been a delay in the issuance of licenses. RAI submitted a representation to the Telangana authorities. Post our meeting and submission, the Government has permitted all shops and establishments in Telangana to operate till 1 am.
Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 mandates the Producers of all types of batteries regardless of chemistry, shape, volume, weight, material composition and use to apply on Centralized Online Portal for Battery Waste Management for grant of registration under these Rules. RAI highlighted that there is no recycler in CPCB approved list of recyclers for Nickel Cadmium battery which makes Nickel Cadmium metal fulfilment impossible. Further filing of annual report without all metals credit availability is not possible. Hence, RAI has requested to extend the date for filing of annual report till the time we have some recyclers for Nickel Cadmium battery.
Food and grocery retailers in Karnataka requested for introducing a unified retail APMC license.
Currently, the Karnataka APMC offers Unified Wholesale APMC Licenses, but does not extend the same convenience to the retail sector. A unified license can reduce compliance burden, increase business mobility, improve market efficiency and reduce costs. Additionally, current mandi-wise licensing system presents numerous challenges to the retailers
RAI has submitted a representation to the Principal Secretary of Karnataka - APMC to facilitate business operations for retailers and contribute to an efficient marketplace in Karnataka.
A series of offline and online meetings were held with Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh – Secretary – DPIIT; Shri Rajeev Singh Thakur – Additional Secretary, DPIIT; Smt Mamta – Director, DPIIT wrt BIS regulations on footwear. Post the meetings, RAI had submitted the following representations to DPIIT:
RAI delegation had representatives from Nike, Decathlon, Reliance, Reebok, Adidas, Skechers, Puma, Bata, Under Armour, New Balance.
RAI Advocacy Committee meeting was organized on 19 June at Hotel Suba International, Mumbai. RAI had participation from 20 organizations which included Trent, Landmark, Raymond, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, Croma, Metro, IKEA, Reliance Retail, D-Mart among others. Advocacy challenges and policy issues from different states in India were discussed and action points for RAI as well as the Advocacy Committee in the next six months were decided.
RAI members were facing a problem to submit online application with respect to the nomination of a person other than director under Section 49 of the LM Act 2009. This resulted in several operational issues in the retail space. RAI had discussed with the Department of Consumer Affairs and the process is smooth now.