Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents around 8 crore traders across approximately 40,000 trade associations in India, on Sunday invited more than 150 national level business associations, trade bodies, chambers representing different industries and segments to join its fight against alleged business malpractices by e-commerce companies and for a smooth rollout of upcoming e-commerce policy.
CAIT, in a statement, said it has extended an invite “to all such bodies to forge a bigger alliance to foil any possible attempt by global e-commerce companies to derail the rolling out of proposed e-commerce policy which is under drafting stage by DPIIT of Ministry of commerce.”
“The Joint Task Force backed with the strength of non-corporate sector will not allow derailing the process of e-commerce policy this time. That is why CAIT has decided to form a bigger consortium of associations. The e-commerce policy is now bound to see the light of day,” CAIT National President B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said in a joint statement.
The confederation had constituted a joint task force on Thursday along with other trade bodies including India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA), All India Transport Welfare Association (AITWA), All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), All India Jewelers and Goldsmith Federation (AIJGF), Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA), Computer Media Dealers Association (CMDA), MSME Development Forum, and Federation of Indian Small and Micro Enterprises (FISME).
Last month, traders, retailers, and MSME associations along with e-commerce companies and others had met DPIIT additional secretary Anil Agrawal to share inputs for the upcoming e-commerce policy. MSMEs had urged the government for a level playing field in e-commerce for them to compete better with large sellers. Associations had also discussed concerns around FDI, GST registration for e-commerce selling, transparency in pricing and zero monopoly by any single seller or platform.
The work on national e-commerce policy and e-commerce rules related to the e-commerce sector has been underway for the past nearly four years. CAIT, in particular, has been claiming unfair business practices including deep discounting, preferential seller treatment, etc., by Amazon, Flipkart and other marketplaces.
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