CAIT demands government GST avoidance probe into Amazon, Flipkart

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jan 15, 2020

The Confederation of All India Traders announced that it will demand the Union Finance Minister to investigate US businesses Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart for alleged goods and services tax avoidance.

 
On January 14, CAIT announced its plans to meet with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to launch a new investigation into Amazon and Flipkart. "Amazon and Flipkart have caused huge GST and income tax revenue loss to the government and CAIT will soon meet the finance minister and urged her to institute a investigation into avoidance of GST and income tax liability on both Amazon and Flipkart," said CAIT in a statement, the Press Trust of India reported. 
 
CAIT also launched protests across 300 Indian cities on Wednesday in partnership with the All India Mobile Retailers Association and the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation to protest the India visit by Amazon head Jeff Bezos. The protests launched with the slogan “Go Back Bezos,” according to CAIT’s Delhi Facebook page. 

CAIT also stated that it “demands [businessmen] Narayanmurthy and Kishor Biyani not to attend Amazon Conclave as CCI [Competition Commission of India] has ordered [an] investigation against them,” the organisation wrote on Facebook. 
 
The CCI has also ordered an investigation into both Amazon and Flipkart for alleged business malpractices including partnerships with its preferred sellers and deep discounting which are both illegal following the foreign direct investment regulations which came into effect last spring.