Traders' body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged the government not to accede to e-commerce players' demand for changes or delayed implementation of revised foreign direct investment (FDI) norms for e-commerce. It warned that any move to amend the policy will be opposed by the trading community ‘tooth and nail’ and demanded a probe into the business activities of large e-commerce players. It said 'we want the government to institute a probe into the business activities of major e-commerce players over the last two-three years. Those found violating the policy should be strongly punished.”
According to CAIT, another provision states that the inventory of a vendor will be seen as controlled by a marketplace if over 25 per cent of the vendor's purchases are from the marketplace entity, including the latter's wholesale unit. It also said that some large online marketplaces have favoured an extension of the February 1 deadline for the new and tighter rules. It demanded that a comprehensive e-commerce policy be brought about at the earliest, and underlined the need for an effective regulator, that is armed with enforcement and adjudicatory powers to enforce e-commerce policy.
It further said that restrictions imposed in FDI policy in e-commerce should also be made applicable on domestic e-commerce players to ensure a level playing field and fair competition. It also demanded that the government should make it mandatory for the e-commerce companies to obtain compliance certificate by March 31, 2019 and the companies that has not complied should be restricted from operating their e-commerce portals.
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