CAIT seeks early rollout of ecommerce policy

Traders' body CAIT Sunday sought early introduction of the e-commerce policy in the wake of the festive season beginning October 15.

In a statement, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said: "In absence of any policy, e-commerce portals will play their dirty game of predatory pricing, deep discounting and loss funding and vitiate the e-commerce market of the country".

It also urged Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu to restrict preferred sellers of e-commerce firms from selling products on these portals, claiming that these sellers are instrumental in malpractices.

The government has set up a group of secretaries to look into the issues, with concerns being raised on some proposals of the draft e-commerce policy.

The initial draft e-commerce policy had suggested several steps to promote the growth of the fast-growing sector.

It said online retail firms may have to store user data exclusively in India in view of security and privacy concerns.

The draft stated that any group company of an online retailer or marketplace may not be allowed to directly or indirectly influence the price or sale of products and services on its platform, a move that could completely restrict e-tailers from giving deep discounts.

The draft has suggested the introduction of a pre-set timeframe for offering differential pricing or deep discounts by e-commerce players to customers.

Further, the draft recommended permitting 49 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in inventory-based business-to-customer e-commerce model. Currently, FDI in such businesses is prohibited and it is allowed only in the marketplace model.