New Delhi: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Sunday welcomed and greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing pension to traders after attaining the age of 60 years. It was a long-standing demand of CAIT since last more than three years. About three crore traders of the country will be benefitted with this decision of the government, an official said.
CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said, “It is a first step towards robust architecture of universal social security and first time in the history when any government has taken any landmark decision in the favour of business community”.
Quoting it as a milestone decision, he said, “it will ensure the traders of this country will live a life of dignity and financial security during their old age.”
Mr. Khandelwal added, “The scheme dictates that all small shopkeepers and self-employed persons as well as the retail traders with GST turnover below '1.5 crore and age between 18-40 years, can enroll for this scheme which means the first pension will be delivered to traders after 20 years from today. However, currently there are about 1.5 crore traders in the country nearly the age of 60 years and they should not be deprived of this scheme.
