In the Union Budget, the government said 100 per cent FDI would be allowed in the marketing of food products made in India. Monday’s FDI announcements extends it to e-commerce, with the likely beneficiaries being firms such as Bigbasket and Gofers — but one needs to wait for the final blueprint. Post-budget, FDI has been expected to benefit foreign retail giants such as Walmart and Tesco.
‘Significant step’“The policy is a significant step forward as FDI in retail has hitherto been subject to several conditions. Moreover, retailing has been permitted for this segment in brick-and-mortar and e-commerce formats. The only possible dampener is that the demand of industry to allow restricted retailing of essential commodities [like detergents], along with food products, does not seem to have been accepted,” said Kalpesh Maroo, BMR & Associates LLP.
“For us, 70 per cent of the business is food products and the remaining is non-food. So, we need to wait and see how this will benefit us,” said Hari Menon, co-founder and CEO of Bigbasket.
