Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Two days just after a copy of the most recent draft e-commerce policy was leaked, which TheSpuzz Online had reviewed, e-commerce sellers’ lobby group All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) on Monday vehemently urged India’s Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba to engage them in discussions associated to e-commerce sector’s reforms. Ahead of the upcoming e-commerce policy, which has been in the performs because early 2019, AIOVA earnestly appealed to Gauba in a letter on Monday “to intervene in this situation and compel the offices in charge of our industry to not hold any discussions which do not have inputs or participation from our fraternity.” A copy of the letter was noticed by TheSpuzz Online.
“AIOVA has categorically not been part of even a single meeting with government on the e-commerce industry. Recent draft (of e-commerce policy) has multiple things missing, we have not spent the effort to make a list,” an AIOVA spokesperson told TheSpuzz Online.
The letter argued that although each the government and e-commerce platforms (without having naming Amazon, Flipkart, and other marketplaces) claimed to shield the interest of on the net sellers, “however none of them are engaging in discussions with us.” AIOVA highlighted its exclusion from discussions associated to the e-commerce market getting held by the government by way of the “Ministry of Commerce and Department of Planning, Investment and Internal Trade who have been allocated e-commerce, retail and internal trade as per rules of allocation of business.”
The association, which represented more than 3,500 e-commerce sellers, claimed that its letters to several greater authorities have normally been forwarded to DPIIT “which has sat on our letters and internally decided not to engage with our organization. Our request for meeting with officers and ministry of Commerce has also been rejected and unanswered.”
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In order to assure fair competitors amongst sellers on the e-commerce marketplaces, the present draft of the e-commerce policy had noted that e-commerce operators should assure equal therapy of all sellers registered on their platforms and that they really should not adopt algorithms that outcome in prioritising pick sellers. Traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has also been alleging unfair small business practices undertaken by Amazon and Flipkart such as violation of FDI and Foreign Exchange Management Act.
During the launch of the vendor onboarding app of its personal e-commerce marketplace Bharat E-Market previous Thursday, CAIT President BC Bhartia mentioned that foreign multinational e-commerce giants operating in India have been not providing a fair chance for Indian sellers to thrive. “They were giving preferential treatment to a select group of sellers and were controlling the inventory on their platforms. Now with BharatEMarket, Indian traders will grow handsomely and prove their mettle in Indian e-commerce,” Bhartia added. However, each Flipkart and Amazon, on a number of occasions, have claimed neutral therapy to sellers on their respective marketplaces and comprehensive compliance with current laws.