E-Commerce stakeholders release 14-point demand to safeguard interests of MSMEs, small traders, startups

New Delhi, Feb 4 (KNN) In order to safeguard the interests of small traders from e-commerce players, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has released a 14-point demand for DPIIT for formulation of an e-commerce policy. The move comes after huge impetus was given by Finance Minister on digitisation.

Called as the Delhi Declaration, the document contains 14 points related to e-commerce emphasizing on the establishment of an independent e-commerce regulatory body to protect the interests of small traders, startups, MSMEs.

An unanimous resolution was adopted at the national level meeting organised by CAIT along with various other stakeholders on Thursday.

Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT said that at a time when the priority of digitizing infrastructure on a large scale has been in the Union Budget, the e-commerce business is bound to develop across the country and hence it is necessary that a clear policy should be declared for e-commerce business.

Irrespective of Foreign or Indian Marketplace e-Commerce companies, sellers registered on the marketplace should not be the related companies of the marketplace. This is one of the important points submitted in the declaration.

CAIT has also suggested that marketplace platform entity shall not, directly or indirectly, control inventory of the seller.

Further, it has demanded that marketplace should not act as a whole-seller to their registered sellers, and marketplace e-commerce companies should not own brands or create their private label brands.

It has made several other recommendations covering aspects such as sellers, consumers, service providers, strong KYC and due-diligence of sellers before on-boarding them so that they do not end up selling illegal products.

The conclave has also decided to form a special task force of organisations working in different verticals.

Besides CAIT, other organisations including India Cellular and Electronics Association,(ICEA),  All India Mobile Retailers Association,(AIMRA), All India Transport Welfare Association (AITWA),  All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation,(AICPDF), National Restaurants Association of India,(NRAI), All India Jewelers and Goldsmith Federation (AIJGF), Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA), Computer Media Dealers Association(CMDA),  MSME Development Forum, Federation of Indian Small and Micro Enterprises,(FISME), were the stakeholders of the special task force.

Despite being invited to this conference, other e-commerce companies including Amazon, Flipkart choose not to participate, while top executives from ITC, Hindustan Lever, Coca-Cola, Amway, Udaan, Urban Ladder, Big Basket, Reliance etc., attended the conference and spoke on the issue of commerce.

All the speakers participating in the conference said that instead of competition in e-commerce business, it is necessary to complement each other, while strict rules should be made in the e-commerce policy so that no one can violate the rules and laws. (KNN Bureau)