Welfare of Small Traders — We will establish National Traders' Welfare Board and create a National Policy for Retail Trade for the growth of retail businesses. To protect the interests of small traders, we will provide an accident insurance of 10 lakh rupees to all the traders registered under GST. On the lines of Kisan credit card, we will also create a scheme to give merchant credit card to registered merchants.

A note on the claim. This entry was imported as a promise about PM SVANidhi — "micro credit and formalisation for 50 lakh urban street vendors". PM SVANidhi is not in the 2019 manifesto. It was launched on 1 June 2020 as a response to the first Covid lockdown, and the 50 lakh figure is the scheme's own initial target. We have replaced the claim with what the manifesto actually promised the urban self-employed, under "Welfare of Small Traders", and graded that.

The manifesto made three concrete undertakings there. A National Traders' Welfare Board. A National Policy for Retail Trade. And two benefits: "an accident insurance of 10 lakh rupees to all the traders registered under GST", and, "On the lines of Kisan credit card… a scheme to give merchant credit card to registered merchants."

On the retail policy, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry answered a direct question on 12 August 2025: "A draft National Retail Trade Policy has been prepared. Consultations have been held with various stakeholders including Central Ministries/Departments, State Governments and major Industry/trade associations." The policy's intended content is described — reducing compliance burden, easing credit access, decriminalising minor offences, licence and inspection reform, a single-window mechanism — but it remained a draft six years after the promise, more than a year after the term for which the promise was made had ended. The answer names no date for adoption.

On the traders' welfare board, the ₹10 lakh accident cover for GST-registered traders, and the merchant credit card, we hold no primary document recording that any of them was created. That is a statement about our evidence, not a claim that nothing happened; we do not restate figures we cannot source. On the current record, these three go down as undelivered.

What did happen for the urban self-employed is worth setting out, because it is substantial and it is the reason this promise is often marked as kept. PM SVANidhi, launched June 2020, gives street vendors collateral-free working capital in tranches of up to ₹15,000, ₹25,000 and ₹50,000, with a 7 per cent interest subsidy for regular repayment. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs told Parliament on 6 August 2026: "As on 12th July, 2026, 76.95 lakh street vendors have availed 1.15 crore collateral-free loans amounting to ₹18,475.06 crore under the Scheme." The August 2025 restructuring added a "UPI-linked RuPay Credit Card… for beneficiaries who have repaid the second loan tranche" — the nearest thing in existence to the merchant credit card the manifesto described, though for street vendors rather than GST-registered merchants. Socio- economic profiling is complete for 50.63 lakh beneficiaries, with 1.56 crore linkages to eight central welfare schemes.

Street vendors and GST-registered traders are different populations with different problems; a scheme for the first does not discharge a promise to the second. Judged on what was written in 2019, the board was not set up, the policy is a draft, and the two benefits are not evidenced. Our verdict is not supported.