The Confederation of All India Traders ( CAIT) on Friday wrote a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goel expressing deep concern over the inordinate delay in rolling out of ecommerce policy and rules under the Consumer Protection Act.
it asserted that the delay has given the blanket opportunity to foreign ecommerce companies Amazon & Flipkart to damage retail trade of mainline retailers to the best of their deep pockets and resources.
“This delay has caused irreparable loss to the small and medium retail traders and has resulted in deep loss of turnover in their business and thousands of retail traders have been forced to close down their businesses in addition to wreaking havoc in the lives of all those who are directly and indirectly dependent on India’s retail and e-commerce industry,” said B.C.Bhartia National President & Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of the CAIT.
They said that it is painful to observe that every other sector of the Indian economy has a policy & specified rules except ecommerce and retail trade. How can a sector like ecommerce which has no boundaries, operate seemingly without disturbing others, in the absence of policy or rules?
Bhartia and Khandelwal though lauded extensive deliberations with stakeholders by DPIIT & Ministry of Consumer Affairs, both under the charge of Goel, have regretted that in spite of assurance given on 2 August 2023 at a meeting of stakeholders, the much-awaited policy and the rules are yet to be notified causing great damage to the businesses of the traders particularly in mobile, consumer electronics, FMCG, consumer durables, Groceries etc. This critical matter has been hanging fire for more than 3 years, it said.
According to CAIT, the current situation where companies like Amazon & Flipkart are openly flouting the norms has created an uneven level playing field, the traders are unwilling to onboard ecommerce platforms as they will remain non-competitive. It is a known fact that Amazon, Flipkart and a nexus of their preferred/owned sellers have been exploiting the Indian consumer, Indian Kirana traders, the Government and violating the laws of the land for their own selfish motive of earning profits at India’s cost. This has directly and greatly damaged the mainline retail trade of the Country.
Both trade leaders said that the industry, especially small and medium retail traders who have served as India’s backbone for many years, has been waiting eagerly for clear and transparent ecommerce policy and rules ever since Amazon, Flipkart and their nexus started exploiting the loopholes in Press Note 2 (2018) and Press Note 3 (2016) of the FDI Policy.
“The need of the hour is to immediately roll out both e-commerce policy and the rules to create an even level playing field in ecommerce trade of India and the traders can make the best use to make ecommerce as their additional business vertical,” said Bhartia and Khandelwal.
