26.8.15

Maharashtra woos Retail

The Maharashtra government is going all out to boost the retail industry business and revive the flagging fortunes of malls. Its draft retail trade policy allows shops and malls to remain open for 24 hours a day , 365 days a year with one rider: retail operations are allowed only from 5 am to 11 pm; the 11 pm-5 am slot can only be used for logistics and supply operations.
The current policy also proposes that the retail food and grocery business be included under ESMA as an `essential service' to ensure that shops and other retail establishments can remain open even during bandhs. In a bid to address the parking issue at many prime-site malls, car park rules will be changed in such a way that parking space will not be counted as floor space index (FSI).Also, the height restriction of a retail building would be relaxed further from 30 metres at present.
Although the upper limit has not been mentioned, a 50% additional FSI would be admissible over the base FSI, subject to payment of the applicable premium as per ready reckoner rates.
The draft policy , which is online, proposes that shops remain open every day of the week, but employees be given a weekly off. The earlier version of the policy had permitted working hours from 8 am to 10 pm.
The policy also proposes that power tariffs would be rationalized. It emphasizes on human resource development and skill development for the industry . It expects state government-run agencies and well-known private institutions to start training-based certificate and placement programmes. These would collaborate with the Retailers' Association of India and other locals as well, to understand their resource requirements so that appropriate manpower would be created for retail enterprise.
The draft policy defines a retailer as any entity that sells goods or provides service to the ultimate consumer. “The sale of such goods can happen over various channels including brickand-mortar, direct selling, ecommerce, television, mobile phone or tablets and other channels. Multi-brand retail or supermarket or hypermarket is where many items are sold under a single roof,“ the draft policy says.

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