Kerala mulls law to check retail biggies

The Kerala government was planning to enact legislation to check the entry of domestic as well as multinational retail players, State Food and Civil Supplies Minister C Divakaran said on Tuesday.

Divakaran said the Left Democratic Front government was also thinking of instructing local bodies across the state not to issue new licences to domestic and multinational retail players for opening outlets in the state and reconsider the ones issued earlier.

Many corporate houses have been planning to open retail outlets in the state. Companies such as Reliance Fresh and Pantaloon group's Big Bazaar have already set up shop here. While Reliance Fresh has opened as many as three outlets in Kochi, Big Bazaar stores have started functioning in Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Palakkad.

With the retail scene hotting up, the state government is under pressure from many political bodies, who have already started protesting against what they call retail monopolies setting up outlets in the state.

The protesters say that if retail behemoths are allowed to establish their presence in the state, smaller traders will suffer.

Significantly, the state government has also begun steps to convince the Centre about the "ill effects of the retail invasion". According to the minister, the state government has initiated measures to put pressure on the Centre to formulate policies that would resist the entry of monopoly companies into the retail sector.

The state government has already initiated steps to put up a fight by announcing that it would open hypermarts under the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (SupplyCo) in the three major cities of Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and Kochi, at an investment close to Rs 140 crore.

The modernisation exercise initiated in the state-run Maveli stores and the proposed opening of three SupplyCo hypermarts may be seen as part of the government plan to combat retail players who are waiting in the wings to take the Kerala consumer in their fold.