Retailers Association urges Haryana to withdraw local job quota legislation

New Delhi, Mar 17 (KNN) Retailers Association of India (RAI) has appealed to withdraw the law reserving 75 per cent of private-sector jobs for locals with a monthly payment of up to Rs 50,000 for citizens of the state.

The retailer’s body in a submission to the Haryana government said that the retail industry is a labour-intensive industry and such a proposal will impact productivity and industry competitiveness. This proposal will cause an increase in the cost of goods and services, which eventually will have to be passed to the public at large. Furthermore, this move may force many retailers to shift their businesses from Haryana to neighbouring states.

Speaking about the impact of the proposal, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India, said, “The notification will severely impact the retail industry in the state, which has recently started showing signs of recovery after being significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. RAI members have at no point in time been averse to providing jobs to locals. However, such a proposal may seriously impact the ease of doing business in Haryana and also may impact foreign direct investments in the state.”

The submission by RAI further stated that the proposal is wholly unreasonable, unsubstantiated and unprecedented, and will put the entire retail sector in the state in serious jeopardy. The proposal is not only unfavourable to the industry but also against the government’s policies of ‘one nation, one market’.

Retail in India which is sized around 854 billion dollars continues to be one of the country’s largest industries that makes up for over 10 per cent of the GDP. It is known that industry has been severely impacted by the pandemic-led situation and hasn’t yet been able to achieve the pre-pandemic level of sales. At this juncture, all efforts are required to boost the local economy to help the survival of the retail and restaurant sectors, thus saving millions of jobs.

Notably, the Haryana Government recently approved a bill which reserved 75 per cent of the private sector jobs with gross salary upto Rs 50,000 per month for the people of the state is facing backlash from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the state as they are gearing up to approach High Court on the same.

While speaking to KNN India on the same, on March 5th, Manesar Industries Welfare Association (MIWA) Vice President, Manmohan Gaind had expressed its dissatisfaction and said that such steps would take us back in terms of growth be it a growth of industries, any commercial institution or an enterprise.

''Haryana state will suffer and in the long term Haryana will start losing opportunities to other states because this is a regressive step which is going to affect every industry,'' he said.

Speaking further on the law, Gaind asserted that the law is designed in such a way that one person in the district has all the authority to grant you permission or not to grant you permission.

''This is a black bill for industry and commercial enterprises and we are going to approach the high court against this bill,'' MIWA, Vice President said.