Council 'wants retail bill revised'

The Council of State plans to send the draft Retail Business Act back for revision because it believes the proposed law would not be able to curb the aggressive expansion of retail giants, a source from the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) said yesterday.Published on July 25, 2007

It will send the bill back to the Cabinet in two weeks so that the Cabinet can send the draft to the Commerce Ministry for revision.

The move came amid strong protests from local retailers who urged the government to find measures to curb the expansion of the multinational superstore chains before enforcement of the prospective law.

About 500 activists and traditional retailers nationwide marched yesterday to Government House to urge the government to approve implementation of the Act. They also called for the government to launch concrete measures to halt large retailers' expansion during the long-awaited legislation process.

The protesters said retail giants were rushing to take advantage from the delay in implementation of the act by accelerating the expansion of up to 200 stores nationwide in the next few months. In particular, Tesco Lotus alone plans to expand 40 new outlets into small communities.

The source said the Council of State would reject the draft as most members felt it was too general and would not be capable of stopping the expansion of modern retailers.

"The Council of State will soon send back the draft to the Cabinet for revision. They said the draft would be unable to help small retailers to develop their operations to compete with multinational retailers," the source said.

The Council of State has spent almost three months in reviewing the draft.

Skol Harnsuthivarin, secretary to the commerce minister, said that if the Council of State returned the draft to the government, the ministry would accelerate the revision.

However, if the ministry found no mistake in the details, it will insist that the original draft be proposed to the Cabinet for return to the Council of State again, he said.

"Although returning the draft will delay implementation, the ministry will try to push for the act to be enacted within the term of the current government," said Skol.

NLA member Jit Siratranont said the assembly was close to finishing writing another draft of the retail bill to propose for Parliament's approval if the Council of State refuses to approve the first draft.

This method would ensure that the act would be implemented within the term of the current government, he said.

Pian Yongnoo, leader of activists protesting against the retail giants, said his group would remain at Government House until the government cleared measures to control the expansion of foreign traders.

"The expansion of giant retail chains is gradually destroying small retailers in each community, forcing them to close down their business. The government must enact urgent measures for the survival of small retailers while accelerating the implementation of the Retail Business Act," he said.

The activists also sent an open letter to permanent secretary of the Commerce Ministry Karun Kittisataporn, calling for support from the government.

In the letter, they called for the government to accelerate implementation of the Foreign Business Act draft amendment and make the draft retail business law effective in controlling the expansion of multinational retail giants.

However, Commerce Minister Krirk-krai Jirapaet said the government had not planned to introduce any interim measures to halt the growth of the superstores before the introduction of the law.

The small retailers said that currently they held only 35 per cent of the retail business in the Kingdom, compared with the 65 per cent of retail giants.

The share of small retailers will continue to drop if the government does not put into place urgent measures to control retail business in the country, said Pian.

He added that more activists from 50 provinces would soon march to Bangkok to pressure the government to help ensure the survival of small retailers.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai
The Nation