New Delhi, Feb 3 (KNN) The demand for regulating the burgeoning e-commerce market in India is reaching a crescendo amidst the accusation of excesses and acts of omission and commission by e-commerce platforms. 

“The era of Laissez Faire has to end and a proper regulatory framework needs to be put in place to safeguard the interests of all economic actors especially the sellers and consumers” says Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary General of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME).

“India needs a comprehensive framework with three elements namely the e-commerce Policy, an Act and a Regulator on the similar lines of Competition framework”, he said while outlining the contours of such a framework at the national conference on ecommerce organized by CAIT in New Delhi today.  

Dismissive of concerns that Trade was a state subject, FISME was of the view that an innovative framework like GST Council could be leveraged to regulate trade as e-commerce transactions are entirely under jurisdiction of GST framework.

The issues such as of data privacy, reporting of origin of goods or date of manufacture, sustainable packaging norms along with accusations of abuse of dominance by platform owners have become too prominent to be ignored, Bhardwaj added.

As one of the major participants in the discourse on e-commerce policy, which still is in the works, FISME has consistently highlighted importance of e-commerce but with fair, equitable and transparent rules of the game.  

As the outcome of the Conference, a declaration was released and formation of a Task Force to help develop the regulatory framework with Ten prominent trade bodies in India was announced.