NEW DELHI: The much-awaited e-commerce policy will be released within 12 months and deal with crucial subjects such as data localisation and FDI in the sector, said an official who attended the second marathon meeting chaired by commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal.
Separately, in a meeting convened by the Ministry of Commerce with domestic trade associations to deliberate on the National Retail Policy, DPIIT secretary Ramesh Abhishek said that a draft of this policy will be released in the next ten days seeking comments from the trading fraternity.
Ramesh said that the government has tried its best at all levels to understand the ground realities of retail trade and the policy is being designed accordingly to relieve traders from hardships, engage them in a better way and help them grow their respective business in a structured manner which will be to the advantage of Indian economy.
Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said that the government has almost moved to fully to the e-system whereas, till now, only 35 per cent of traders have been able to computerise their business.
“Serious steps are needed to link the rest with computerised systems and the government should provide 50 per cent subsidy,” Khandelwal said.
As for the e-commerce policy, Goyal is said to have emphasised India’s openness to discuss issues related to data, e-commerce and FDI with other countries, but on a reciprocal basis. This comes at a time when major foreign players who hold large chunk of India’s e-commerce market have raised concerns on data localisation norms. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is in New Delhi this week, is also expected to raise these concerns with the Indian government.