RBI directs e-commerce companies to settle seller payments within 2 days

Moneycontrol News

E-commerce majors like Flipkart and Amazon have been mandated to clear merchants' payments within two days of being intimated about the completion of a transaction, according to a response by the RBI to a query sent by an online seller.

The central bank iterated that completion of a transaction refers to the act of making a payment, Time of India reported after reviewing its response.

Currently, e-commerce companies have their own agreement with sellers on their platforms regarding the settlement of payments or completion of transactions, mostly referred to as the date of dispatch.

Thus, depending on the e-commerce company, the settlement of payments takes about a week to 15 days on an average.

Flipkart, one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the country, has a payment cycle of 7-12 days for various categories of sellers, including gold and silver retailers.

According to the report, sellers claim that leading e-commerce players have not been settling payments for prepaid orders, as required under RBI regulations.

However, an Amazon spokesperson told the paper that the company was compliant with regulations, while Flipkart's representative declined to comment.