E-commerce policy: Traders’ representative body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), on Friday, said that it has filed a petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appeal for the earliest roll-out of e-commerce policy to protect traders from the alleged rampant violation of conditions of Press Note 2 of the FDI policy by the e-commerce companies.
In a statement on Friday, CAIT noted in the petition that the e-commerce policy and rules under the Consumer Protection Act, have already been drafted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, under the Ministry of Commerce.
CAIT National President B.C. Bhartia & Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said that the reason for the petition was the “great threat (faced by traders) from foreign-funded e-commerce companies who are habitually offending the FDI policy and the rules by indulging into predatory pricing, loss funding, owing inventory etc and are not discharging their responsibilities for making a level playing field, as spelt out in Press Note No 2 of FDI policy, 2018.”
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“It is noteworthy to mention that the absence of specified policy and rules have given them an open route to adopt and execute malpractices in their business format-added trade leaders,” Bhartia and Khandelwal added.
CAIT has on multiple occasions earlier alleged that several foreign-funded e-commerce companies practice predatory pricing, deep discounting, loss funding, and owning inventory; and use a preferential seller system in their operations, causing unfair practices that add to the vulnerability of Indian e-commerce companies.
Bhartia & Khandelwal further said, “If we add the opportunity of creating lakhs of jobs by our own entrepreneurs in the e-commerce sector and the job losses in other sectors in mainline retail through capital burning by these companies, it could not be termed even a bit less than the act of economic terrorism against a country.”
According to a PTI report in August this year, the e-commerce policy was expected to roll out in the coming months.