Government mulls national policy for retail trade
By Express News Service | Published: 01st January 2018 09:03 AM |
Last Updated: 01st January 2018 09:03 AM | A+A A- |
Image used for representational purpose.
NEW DELHI: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said that Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu has assured the industry body that the government would formulate a national policy for retail trade to bring all verticals, including small business, big retail, e-commerce and direct selling under it.
“Due to demand from CAIT to formulate a national policy for retail trade, the commerce minister agreed to formulate a policy having all verticals of retail trade i.e. small business, big retail, e-commerce and direct selling under one umbrella of retail trade policy and appreciated the suggestion,” CAIT said in a statement.
In a meeting held between Prabhu and CAIT delegation led by its secretary general Praveen Khandelwal, the industry body lodged its strong complaint against e-commerce platforms for indulging in deep discounting and loss funding, thereby violating FDI Policy 2016 of the Centre, it said.
CAIT said that the unfair practices being adopted by such e-commerce platforms, claiming to be a marketplace, are conducting sales to direct consumers instead of making Business-to-Business (B2B) sales.
The industry body said that it has sought stern action against such e-commerce players which are bent upon in creating an uneven level playing field, much to the disadvantage of offline markets.
Responding to the delegation, Prabhu said that no unfair practices will be allowed in any vertical of retail trade and complaints made will be looked into. He assured the delegation to convene a meeting shortly to resolve the issue.
Earlier too, CAIT submitted a memorandum highlighting that a large number of e-commerce platforms are deeply engaged in predatory pricing and continuously offering deep discounts by funding the losses in contravention of the FDI policy. These e-commerce companies claims to be a marketplace but mass scale public advertisements by them in the recent past is to solicit the consumers directly, it said.
These e-commerce portals are circumventing the law and engaged in Business-to-Consumers (B2C) activities, which is prohibited for e-commerce marketplace portals, it added.
