Teamlease Regtech Releases ‘Simplifying Compliance Management For The Retail Industry’ Report

* The report highlights that retail chains with multiple stores across different cities and states face more than 3,000 compliance requirements and offers recommendations on compliance management 

TeamLease Regtech, India’s leading Regulatory Technology (Regtech) solutions company, has released its report titled ‘Simplifying Compliance Management for the Retail Industry.’ The report provides an overview of the compliance complexity and challenges faced by entrepreneurs and employers in the retail industry. It also delves into the recent policy reforms to provide insights into the industry's future outlook.

The retail industry contributes over $1.3 trillion, equivalent to 10% of the national GDP, and employs more than 35 million people, accounting for 8% of the workforce. Despite its crucial role in the economy, only 12% of the industry is organised. Teamlease Regtech’s report sheds light on the regulatory challenges and compliance management obstacles faced by employers in the industry. 

FMCG, apparel & footwear, and consumer electronics are the largest retail segments, constituting 65%, 10% and 9%, respectively. The report highlights that retail chains with multiple stores across different cities and states face more than 3,000 compliance requirements. These include maintenance of records, returns, and filings under the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965; Minimum Wages Act, 1948; Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948; Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 and Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 among others. 

Rishi Agrawal, CEO and Co-Founder, Teamlease Regtech, said,  “India’s retail industry is a major sector of the economy that is going to be critical in the nation’s quest to breach the $10 trillion GDP mark by the end of the decade. Household consumption has already crossed $1.75 trillion, and we now rank third in the world in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). The coming years will see explosive growth in the number of high-income and middle-income households, which will further drive consumption. In terms of retail consumption, the shoppers in tier 2 and tier 3 cities have overtaken the metropolitan cities. The union government has identified the massive potential hidden within the unorganized segment of the retail sector. The national retail trade policy, ONDC, and e-commerce policy are laying down the necessary pipeline to facilitate the transformation of the retail sector. With this report, we look at the intersection of digital technology and the retail industry. It reveals how compliance management will be the key to building trust and improving the ease of doing business for entrepreneurs.”

Predominantly, the overarching legislation for the food retail segment includes the Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006 and Food Safety & Standard Rules, 2011, Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006 & Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011 and Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018, and among others. In addition, they also need to abide by the compliances under the Insecticides Act, 1968 and Insecticides Rules, 1971.

The report reveals that an enterprise operating a retail chain must comply with at least 1,666 labour-related, 463 environment, health & safety-related and 402 industry-specific compliances. Tracking and managing all applicable regulatory obligations can be exceedingly complex when done on an ad hoc basis with Excel sheets that are dependent on people. The report concludes with recommendations for compliance reforms that can further improve the ease of doing business and provide new-age solutions for employers to manage compliance effectively.

About TeamLease RegTech

TeamLease RegTech is India’s leading regulatory technology company transforming Compliance. Its cloud-based, multi-tenant, web and mobile Compliance SAAS solution tracks all compliances and now has advanced workflows for automation of Labour and Secretarial compliance. Trusted by over 1500 entities and 25,000 enterprise users in 45 industries, the company envisions a national open compliance grid towards a cashless, paperless and presenceless compliance in digital India. As a subsidiary of Teamlease Services, the company continues to empower Corporate India to stay on the right side of the law.