The Second Meeting of the National Traders’ Welfare Board (NTWB) was held at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi under the chairmanship of Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Sh. Piyush Goyal.

The Minister in his special address, highlighted the relevance of NTWB and its objectives for the welfare of Retail Traders and the initiatives being taken by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) for traders.  He directed to hold regular interactive sessions, wherein the traders can be kept informed of the various schemes and policies related to internal trade. This can also help the trade representatives in submitting relevant suggestions.

Chairman, NTWB, Shri Sunil J. Singhi informed the Board that relevant suggestions received from the traders during the outreach programmes in 24 states have been forwarded to Line Ministries/Departments for their effective resolution. Chairman, NTWB informed that State Governments have been requested to constitute such State Level Boards and District Level Committees for Retail Traders.

An action taken report of the last meeting held on 5th December 2023, was presented in the meeting. During the meeting, members were informed about the various initiatives taken by DPIIT and other ministries for the welfare of Retail Traders. Suggestions/inputs were sought from the members for improving the adoptability and scalability of such schemes. 

The meeting was attended by the members nominated by the Central Government representing Trade Associations and States/UTs as well as the ex-officio members representing Nine Ministries/Departments of Government of India.

Traders' welfare: directive to hold regular interactive sessions and establish state and district level trader boards to channel suggestions. The Board emphasised the welfare of retail traders by directing regular interactive sessions to inform traders about schemes and collect suggestions; it forwarded outreach inputs from 24 states to Line Ministries/Departments for resolution and requested State Governments to constitute State Level Boards and District Level Committees to strengthen local grievance redress and policy feedback.