CAIT vs Amazon, Flipkart: Traders' body to observe 'e-commerce purification week'

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has accused Amazon, Walmart-backed Flipkart and other foreign-funded e-commerce companies of following unethical business practices with the dual objectives of controlling India's e-commerce scene and destroying the country's retail business.  

The unethical practices cited by CAIT include predatory pricing, deep discounting, loss funding, controlling inventory, and adoption of preferential sellers.

CAIT noted that the "sinister designs" of these companies have corrupted the e-commerce landscape of India. The traders' body has also launched an 'e-commerce purification week' from June 14-21, which is getting huge backing from traders' associations across India.

As part of this week-long campaign, trade associations from all over India will hand over a memorandum to the District Collectors in all states. Trade association delegations will also hold meetings with the Chief Ministers and state Finance Ministers.

These meetings with Chief Ministers and Finance Ministers of states will be aimed at setting up a monitoring mechanism for e-commerce trade and ensuring strict compliance with the Centre's FDI policy vis-a-vis e-commerce.

They will also send an e-mail to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. In this letter, the traders' associations will urge the Centre to direct the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to investigate the business modules of Amazon and Flipkart. In this letter, the traders' associations will also urge the Centre to set up a regulatory mechanism for monitoring e-commerce business in India, IANS reported.

As per CAIT, e-commerce business saw a 36 per cent growth in India in the last one year, more so in the case of personal care, beauty and wellness products. Grocery and FMCG product sales via e-commerce saw a growth of 70 per cent while electronics' sales saw a rise of 27 per cent.

It further noted that e-commerce business rose from 32 per cent in 2019 to 46 per cent in 2020 in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, citing the rising number of smartphone users in India.

"Therefore, there is an urgent need to purify the e-commerce landscape of the Country so that even a small trader can also adopt and accept the e-commerce business as an additional avenue for raising his revenue and make Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign a success," CAIT said on the importance of its campaign against e-commerce.

"The traders across the country are fully geared up to take on any challenge on this account and have firmly decided to free the e-commerce business from all evils. More than 40 thousand trade organisations from across will join with full force to make the purification campaign a success," CAIT further noted.

Edited by Mehak Agarwal; with agency inputs

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