The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Sunday pitched for early introduction of the e-commerce policy as it apprehends vitiation of the market by e-commerce portals through "predatory pricing" and "deep discounting" during festive season beginning October 15.
"In the absence of any policy just before the festive season beginning October 15, e-commerce portals will play their dirty game of predatory pricing, deep discounting and loss funding, which will vitiate the market," CAIT National President B C Bhartia said in a statement.
"Hence, we call for early introduction of e-commerce policy as early as possible," he added.
Urging Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu to restrict preferred sellers of e-commerce companies to sell products on e-commerce portals, Bhartia alleged that they were "instrumental" in indulging in all sorts of malpractices.
He said the government has already issued first draft of e-commerce policy and a panel of secretaries is already in process of examining the draft policy.
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CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said provisions on data localisation should remain in the policy to check unauthorised infiltration of goods through e-commerce.
He also said the proposal to allow up to 49 per cent Foreign Direct Investment in inventory model-based businesses amounts to "backdoor entry" of Multi National Companies in retail trade and it must be scrapped.
"Traders will never accept such a provision under any circumstances," he said.
Right to examine software and source-code for effective regulation is a good step as it will make sure foreign companies pay taxes properly, Khandelwal added.
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