'Amazon, Flipkart hell bent on killing retail business'

New Delhi: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in a letter sent to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said foreign entities like Amazon and Flipkart are hell bent on ruthlessly destroying the Indian retail sector with their deep pockets and expansive lobby of legal experts who will stop at nothing before trampling the lives of over 40 crore Indians. CAIT in a communication sent to Goyal said that FDI in e-commerce section of Press Note No.2 of FDI Policy 2016/2018, the stipulations of which foreign entities like Amazon and Flipkart are hell bent on ruthlessly destroying the Indian retail sector with their deep pockets and expansive lobby of legal experts who will stop at nothing before trampling the lives of over 40 crore Indians.

"It is nothing less than a daylight robbery where expressive prohibitions of Press Note No.2 are grossly and blatantly are being violated by such foreign entities derived with their ulterior motives to implement their hidden agenda to control and dominate not only the e-commerce business but also the retail trade of India in a very clandestine manner", it said. CAIT said that instead of complying the stipulations of said Press Note both in letter and spirit to respect the law of the land, these foreign entities are deliberately each and every rule of the Press Note No.2 treating India as a banana republic.

Under such a grim situation and particularly in the wake of current highly vitiated e-commerce business, a duty is cast upon the Government to protect sanctity of the law, rules and regulations pertaining to FDI in e-commerce and therefore necessity of a new and fresh Press Note replacing Press Note No.2 of the FDI policy is need of the hour.

The loopholes of the present policy are being exploited by foreign e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart so that these loopholes are properly plugged and the policy is implemented as per its original intent. CAIT said that such control allows them do predatory pricing, deep discounting, preferential treatment of sellers with capital dumping through their affiliate sellers at its root. All this is done to gain the market share and make illegitimate financial gains at the expense of livelihood of 8.5 crores small merchants, their dependent families and employees. To circumvent the restriction imposed on the marketplace model of e-commerce, a common practice resorted to by these giant foreign e-commerce entities has been to create affiliate companies as sellers, in such a way that they have full control on their business by the way of equity and/or economic participation through their parent/group companies without strictly falling within the definition of 'Group Company' in FDI policy.