The Indian government should treat both local and global players equally in order to boost the fast-growing e-commerce industry, a research and advocacy firm CUTS International recently commented.
The Centre should frame a comprehensive national e-commerce norms to provide a level playing field to local and global e-retail companies, it also said.
The much-debated e-commerce norms have been widely discussed and criticized by the media and industry people since its announcement by the government.
“The issue of creating a level playing field between domestic and foreign players in the retail sector is yet to be resolved, for which a comprehensive National e-Commerce Policy is need of the hour.” – Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International
According to him, the Foreign Direct Investment’s (FDI) new guidelines in the e-commerce sector are stricter for global e-tailers, on the other hand, there are no such restrictions for domestic companies, which is creating an uneven playing field.
He also asserted that these online vendors’ concern of discriminatory treatment by current and upcoming domestic e-commerce platforms needs to be addressed.
Meanwhile, people, who are keeping a tab on the development, believed any such drastic move needs a proper time, may be a year to implement, so that the industry people can assimilate the changes and act accordingly.
The rules of the game should be fair and non-discriminatory to all players in the retail sector, he said. In a free market economy, you cannot control discounts. It is bizarre to say discounts, cashbacks have to be fair and non-discriminatory. The recommendations in the note have gone into a license raj-type regime by trying to mandate how much discount can be given, others affirmed.
