New Delhi, Feb 1 (KNN) The Retailers Association of India (RAI) has praised the Union Budget 2023-24, calling it growth oriented budget clearly aiming to help the Retail sector grow.

The Budget has laid down a broad framework towards ease of doing business, infrastructure, growth, and consumption and that is positive for the retail industry, said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI).

The RAI CEO pointed out that the DESH STACK e-portal for skilling, reskilling, and upskilling through online training, will benefit various industries including retail where there is a need for quick on-boarding of skilled and semi-skilled talent as it is a labour-intensive sector with high employee churn rates.

“In addition, it will help increase overall employment in this sector,” he said.

The association praised the various initiatives launched around urban-planning, rural development, infrastructure development and logistics and transportation. “This will ease movement of people and resources and facilitate faster distribution for retail and will help reduce the overall wastage especially for perishables,” it said.

Furthermore, the focus towards enabling better agriculture support through technology would help in getting better produce for farmers, and better prices for consumers.

“While the extended Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the hospitality sector is a welcome move, the same could have been extended to other forms of retail as they too are high-contact businesses that have been hit by the pandemic,” Rajagopalan said.

The government has reworked the income tax slabs in the new tax regime to give a push for income tax relief. This will support consumption, he added.  (KNN Bureau)