Govt asks ED, RBI to assess if Amazon, Flipkart violated regulatory norms

The government has asked the Enforcement Directorate and Reserve Bank of India to take necessary action against Amazon and Walmart-owned-Flipkart, in a significant move after the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) lodged its protests against the online delivery giants alleging that the biggies have resorted to breaching of Foreign Direct Investment norms and Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

CAIT National President B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal informed that several complaints have been made to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in the recent past against Amazon and Walmart-owned-Flipkart. Now the government has directed the authorities to take necessary action.

Meanwhile, CAIT in a statement said that traders across the country will observe Year 2021 as "Bhartiya Vyapaar Samman Varsh" and all efforts will be made to clean the e-commerce landscape of India and an era of manipulations, malpractices and exploitation will come to end. The traders’ organisation also said that it will promote and encourage retailers and traders across the country to adopt digital commerce and digital payments as new instruments to widen the net of business in India.

CAIT said that the Indian retail sector incurred a loss of about Rs 19 lakh crore in the last few month due to the coronavirus induced nation-wide lockdown. However, while several other sectors have started showing signs of recovery, retailers continue to face uncertainty with many shops still reeling under stress.

“The entire retail trade, which is often called a growth engine of the economy is in great dilemma never seen before. The retail market is gripped with acute financial crisis as even the supplies made in November-December, the payment of which was to be released in February-March is still pending and there is no hope of its early realisation,” a CAIT statement said earlier..