(From left) Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee with Bharti chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal and ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar in Calcutta on Monday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Sept. 17: The nation may be debating on foreign direct investment in retail, but the man who brought the world’s largest retail chain, Wal-Mart, in the country is in no hurry.

Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises, today said, “FDI in retail can wait. Let us see how Indian companies deliver in the next 7 to 10 years and then we can take a call. At the back-end, Metro has been allowed.”

Mittal, who is also the chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry, was speaking at the business chamber’s national executive committee meeting here today.

Wal-Mart has set up a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises in India.

The Centre has allowed foreign companies such as the US-based Wal-Mart and Germany’s Metro to participate in back-end operations such as managing supply chains, operating cold storages and catering to wholesale customers. The government has also allowed single-brand retailers such as Nike and Adidas to set up shop here.

Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was also present at the meet. Bhattacharjee’s CPM is the strongest voice against FDI in retail. Foreign multi-brand retailers such as Wal-Mart are not allowed to open stores in the country. However, there is no such restrictions on Indian entities.

The chief minister reiterated his stance on letting Indian retailers operate with some restrictions. “They should not touch foodgrains, set up shops outside cities,” Bhattacharjee said.

To this, Mittal said, “On the front-end, we will come back to you, sir, later, not at this moment.”

Speaking to the reporters, Mittal said the chief minister believed in the inevitability of organised retail. “Metro, Wal-Mart at the backend is not a problem,” he added.

He said a policy of letting organised retailers set up shop beyond city limits would hurt their interests.

“Being on the periphery of cities means that it can only be hypermarkets, and not medium and small formats,” he said. “My view on foodgrain retail is that it will benefit every one,” he added.

On Bharti’s plans for Wal-Mart in Bengal, he said the state was not on the immediate radar of the company. “East is not the first port of call like telecom,” he said.

Bhattacharjee may have approved of companies foraying into retail, but Forward Block, the CPM’s coalition partner in Left Front, has blocked the entry of Reliance in the state.