The Confederation of All India Traders has hit out at the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum’s statement terming the recent changes in the e-commerce rules “regressive”, saying that such a statement was an attempt by companies such as Amazon and Walmart to try to pressurise the Indian government into relaxing the rules.
The government last week issued a clarification to the e-commerce rules that tightened the operational leeway for e-commerce firms with foreign direct investment in them, and which exerted direct or indirect control over vendors selling on their portals.
“The amendment to the FDI in e-commerce policy is regressive,” USISPF president and chief executive officer Mukesh Aghi said in a statement. “It harms the consumer, who is ultimately the king... It is not the government’s business to micromanage businesses. This amendment bars Indian manufacturers and sellers from effectively competing in the global online marketplace.”
The CAIT, which had hailed the new rules as being in favour of small traders, in a statement cautioned that any changes made under the “undue pressure of these lobbies” will be strongly opposed by traders in India.
“It is highly regretted that powerful MNCs through their respective governments try to act as a big brother; and in the name of consumers and farmers, they try to change policies of developing countries,” the traders’ body said.
Direct impact
The new rules directly affect U.S.-based Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, two of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in India, since they will now have to bar vendors in which they have an equity stake or exert control over.
Amazon and Flipkart have a direct stake in their preferred vendors — CloudTail and WS Retail.