Govt nominates Sunil Jeevrajji Singhi as chairman of National Traders Welfare Board

New Delhi, Jun 20 (PTI) The government has nominated Sunil Jeevrajji Singhi as the chairman of the National Traders Welfare Board, which advises the centre on reducing compliance burden and improving the availability of funds for traders, an official order said.

In 2019, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) set up this board.

It has also nominated – Ghanshyam Das Goyal and Rajesh Chandan – as non-official members having knowledge of matters related to the retail trade.

From trade associations – Girish Arora from Laghu Udyog Bharati, Subhash Goyal from Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), and Amar Parwani from Chhattisgarh Chamber of Commerce and Industries would be the members of the board.

Besides, eight members have been nominated from states and UTs. These include Devesh Kumar Rastogi (Uttar Pradesh), Davinder Kumar Gupta (Delhi), Ashish Tulsidas Shirodkar (Goa), and Prakash Chand Pirgal (Karnataka).

The DPIIT order said that these members are nominated for two years.

Further, according to the DPIIT’s order, the board would be represented by joint secretary-level officers from eight ministries or departments including revenue, financial services, housing, labour, electronics and IT, and commerce..

The Board will also advise the government on simplification of laws concerning traders and recommend suggestions regarding their social security benefits like insurance, pension and health care.

Domestic trade, which comprises over 6 crore business enterprises, contributes around 15 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. It provides employment to about 25 crore people.

Earlier there was no institutional mechanism to understand the issues and problems faced by traders in their day-to-day business operations for the growth of retail trade and the welfare of traders and their employees.