Clarifications on FDI in single brand retail if needed: Anand Sharma

NEW DELHI: The government will make "clarifications" in the policy for FDI in single-brand retail if needed but meeting the 30 per cent sourcing norm should not be a problem for IKEA, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma today said.

"If there is any clarification required, there would be clarification... if there is greater degree of clarity required, then the government will definitely do so because the policy has been made to attract the investment to generate jobs so that the manufacturing is done in India itself," Sharma told reporters here.

The minister's statement comes in the wake of IKEA, which had proposed to invest Rs 10,500 crore to set up single brand retail stores in India, expressing concern over conditions for the 30 per cent sourcing of products from micro and small industries.

The Swedish furniture and home furnishing retail giant had asked the government that it must be allowed to continue sourcing from the small units even after the vendors have crossed the mandatory USD 1 million investment limit.

Sharma, however, said this should not be a problem. "I don't think IKEA is an issue. I don't think there is any problem. IKEA has already been doing substantial sourcing from India without having come and well before the policy," he said.

IKEA is sourcing more than 30 per cent of their entire textiles range of their global operations from India. Their carpet sourcing is from India, the glass ware, the kitchen, the steel range, so there's already substantial amount of sourcing, Sharma added.