NEW DELHI: With increasing number of E-Commerce companies and no specifications and regulations regarding e-commerce business in India, government is planning to come up with a separate regulator for E-Commerce business.
“There is so much confusion regarding E-Commerce in India. Space is expanding fast and it requires well-defined regulations and policies. That is the reason space require a separate regulator. The government is working on it,” said a member of the recently constituted think tank on e-commerce,
The government has constituted a think tank specifically to frame rules and regulation for the sector, chaired by Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu.
The member further added that all digital businesses will be legally bound to register with the regulator, has been recommended by the e-commerce task force. This will also make a real estimation of the total number of e-commerce companies and their registered offices.
The think tank will come up with its final draft on the E-Commerce policy by the end of this month. The final draft is already being reviewed by the committee which is incorporating the suggestions and framework. Once the draft is ready and out, government will put it on the public for comments and suggestions.
"Apart from the general business regulations, the regulator will also look into discounts policies, monitoring of quality of the products, more clarification on FDI rules on inventory and the server and data issues. We have already done many brainstorming session on this and talking to all the stakeholders and taking suggestions," the official added.
The think-tank is also fine-tuning certain grey areas that exists with the e-commerce companies regarding GST.
Recently the merger of Amazon and Flipkart once again fuelled discussion about lack of strick regulation where big players manage to manipulate FDI rules. Retailers said that due to lack of strong regulation these big global chains are manipulating rules to their advantage.
Retailers have also complained regarding product quality and services against e-commerce players. However, according to Praveen Khandelwal of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), these complaints are not being taken very seriously.
However, retailer associations allege that the draft, parts of which they are already aware of, is already tilted in favour of major e-commerce players such as Amazon, Ola and Paytm.