CAIT wants policy implemented soon

New Delhi: Small traders, on Sunday, called for early introduction of the ecommerce policy in India alleging that ecommerce players will indulge in deep-discounts in the forthcoming festival season.

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) also asked commerce minister Suresh Prabhu to restrict preferred sellers of ecommerce firms to sell products on their portal alleging that these sellers are instrumental in “all sorts of malpractices.”  

CAIT said that the government has already issued first draft of the ecommerce policy and a group of secretaries is already in process of examining the draft.

CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said that there are important provisions on data localisation and checking abuse of FDI which should be remained in the policy to check unauthorised infiltration of goods through e-commerce.

“The provision for a separate section of ED for looking into Press Note 3 related violations is good but the question must be raised about what is happening with current violations that are very much open and known and whether they will be employed to stop malpractice. Making sure that FDI based e-commerce companies do not violate Press Note 3 provision is more important,” he said.

Mr Khandelwal said that the biggest concern for traders would be proposal to allow up to 49 per cent FDI in inventory model based businesses as long as the products are 100 per cent Indian made, and ownership controls remain Indian.

“Such a provision is back door entry of MNCs in retail trade and must be scrapped. The traders will never accept such a provision under any circumstances,” he said.