NEW DELHI: If you were anticipating buying an induction cooker, a better laptop to work from home or even an air-conditioner as peak summers are approaching - wait a moment - you will now have to wait till the nationwide lockdown ends.

In a major setback for e-commerce firms, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Sunday revoked permission given to these companies to sell non-essential commodities from April 20. E-tailers, however, will continue to sell essential items.

The notification comes at a time when consumers had already started placing orders for products like mobile phone, induction cooker and refrigerator and e-tailers such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Paytm Mall in collaboration with their sellers were gearing up to deliver these items in areas except the demarcated containment zones – hotspots or red zones from April 20, as per guidelines issued by the MHA last week.

“The new guideline will disappoint not just consumers whose list of essentials had expanded while they stayed at home, but also thousands of sellers who had geared up in the last 48 hours to provide millions of people with safe access to products,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.

The e-tailer expects the order is re-considered "so that the urgent need of consumers is met and that there is revival of economic activity."

While Flipkart is yet to comment on the latest development, other e-commerce companies concurred even as they are revisiting their plans and restricting their services to the supply of essential items only. “We will continue to operate in complete compliance with the guidelines issued by the government," a Snapdeal spokesperson said.

Paytm Mall has also urged the government to expand the ambit of essential goods to include products like laptops and mobile phones to facilitate people working from home.

"Safety of fellow Indians is of utmost importance to us and therefore we support the government's decision in spirit to limiting e-commerce operations to essentials. However, we believe the ambit of essential goods should be increased," Paytm Mall Senior Vice President Srinivas Mothey said, adding products like laptops, mobile phones and accessories should be allowed to part of 'essential' items.

Another executive of an e-commerce firm, requesting anonymity, said: “Not all companies have deep pockets to handle these kinds of reversal in decisions. Globally, if e-commerce firms are allowed to operate, why not in India where several small businesses depend on e-commerce,” the person pointed out.

The newly amended order says the following clause — “e-commerce companies. Vehicles used by e-commerce operators will be allowed to ply with necessary permissions” — is excluded from the guidelines. The amendment seems clearly aimed at creating a level playing field for small retailers after the earlier order received strong criticism from traders’ body CAIT.

For instance, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) had written to the Prime Minister seeking to reconsider its decision stating that the order allowing other e-commerce firms to trade non-essential goods was “discriminatory” in nature.

"We demolished the sinister plan of e-commerce to trade in non-essential items. MHA accepted our objection, and these online companies can now only deliver essential commodities," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general, CAIT.

Earlier Khandelwal rued: "More than 40 lakh traders are supplying essential goods since lockdown came into effect. Side-lining and ignoring them, e-commerce firms have been allowed to deliver non-essentials from April 20. We want to know what is the necessity for which they have been given permission.”

Retailers Association of India (RAI), meanwhile, strongly recommended allowing all forms of retailers to operate through home delivery during the 19-day extended lockdown.

“We believe to fulfill consumer needs in this trying time, there is a need to widen the category of ‘essential’ products and all types of retailers including neighborhood stores and larger retailer chains be allowed to operate home delivery services, which in turn, will enable uptick of economic activity,” RAI Chief Executive Officer Kumar Rajagopalan said in a statement.