The presence or absence of US-retailer WalMart will not make a huge difference to the Indian retail market, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said.

U. S.-based WalMart, the world's largest retailer, recently announced its plans to quit joint venture with Bharti Enterprises.

Replying to a question on whether the American retailer's move was a setback for India's retail sector, Chidambaram said, "WalMart will be a speck in India's retail market. India's retail market has been strengthened by Indian retail chains. So why do we assume that WalMart will make a huge difference to India's retail market?"

WalMart and Bharti announced on October 9 that they decided to terminate their franchise agreement in the retail business and separately own and operate separate business formats in the country.

The joint venture was created in 2007. It launched the first Best Price Modern Wholesale cash-&-carry store in Amritsar in 2009. Currently, there are twenty Best Price Modern Wholesale stores situated at places like Agra, Amritsar, Bhopal, Ludhiana, Raipur, Kota, Jammu and Zirakpur.

WalMart wants the Indian government to relax the mandatory 30% local sourcing norms for foreign players in multi-brand retail sector; but the government declared that it has no plan to relax the these norms.