With the rising e-commerce across India, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) showed concerns. They recently wrote a letter to the Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal claiming that e-commerce was destroying the Indian Retail Sector.
CAIT Claim That E-Commerce Destroys Lives Of 40 Crore Indians
As per the latest reports, the CAIT letter claims that foreign companies like Amazon and Flipkart are “ruthlessly” destroying the Indian retail sector. The letter said that with the “deep pockets and expansive lobby of legal experts” that the e-commerce companies have access to are ready to stop at nothing. They are reportedly destroying the lives of over 40 crore Indians.
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CAIT further called the actions by the foreign entities as the “daylight robbery” and claimed that they violated Press Note No. 2 with their ulterior motives. The e-commerce websites (allegedly) have a hidden agenda to control and dominate the e-commerce businesses and the retail trade of India.
The letter further said that the foreign entities are treating India as the “banana republic” and violating each and every rule of the Press Note No. 2.
CAIT Suggests New FDI Policies
As the CAIT claimed the violations, they also suggested the Government to protect the sanctity of the laws and rules and regulations of the FDI. They must ensure that the e-commerce follows the same. They also suggested creating new and fresh policies.
CAIT further allegated both Amazon and Flipkart and said that they are (reportedly) taking advantage of the loopholes present in the current policy. They said that it allows them to control the prices, give heavy discounts and treat the sellers as per preference and not encourage the original sources.
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To be able to make their way through the restrictions, e-commerce are modeled in such a way that they create affiliate companies for their sellers which gives the e-commerce giants control over their sellers.
And all of this is done to (reportedly) make financial gains at the expense of small merchant’s livelihoods.
To fill in the alleged loopholes, the CAIT has demanded some of the vital points to issues new FDI policies to the e-commerce companies. They have asked the government to clearly mark the boundaries between the “market place model” and the “inventory based model”.
They have further asked to put a ban on any type of direct or indirect, equity or economic relation between the marketplace entity and the seller on their platform.
Amongst many other suggestions, CAIT suggested that the Government or the Regulatory bodies should keep a verification of compliance in place to ensure that the guidelines are being followed.
The Union Commerce Ministry is yet to comment.
