No action by Indian ministry on plaints on e-comm: CAIT

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) is apprehensive over no action by the commerce ministry on e-commerce issues and the resulting detrimental impact on retail trade. Accusing e-commerce platforms of violating the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy 2016 through deep discounts and loss funding, CAIT criticised commerce minister Suresh Prabhu’s silence.

"It appears that instead of promoting Indian retail trade, the government is more interested in helping and encouraging MNCs to control and dominate the retail trade through e-commerce and FDI, which is highly deplorable," a news agency report quoted CAIT as saying.

CAIT claimed that a large number of e-commerce companies engage in predatory pricing and continuously offer deep discounts by funding the losses in contravention of the FDI policy.

Instead of taking action on complaints against e-commerce companies, the government went a step ahead and allowed cent per cent FDI in single brand retail and has made all arrangements to wreck the backbone of the retail trade in the country, CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said in a statement.

Even after specific assurance given to a CAIT delegation by Prabhu, no step has been taken to draft a national trade policy for retail trade, CAIT said.

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi advocating policies for small businesses, domestic trade seems to be not on the government’s priority list, the traders' body added.