India's e-commerce policy, which has been in the works since 2018, may face further delays as the government seeks to maintain status quo with key sector players such as Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon amid a slowdown in net foreign direct investment inflows, according to a Moneycontrol report.
A high-level review meeting last week reportedly informally decided the policy was not an immediate priority.
The first draft of the e-commerce policy was released in 2019. However, the policy proved to be too broad to implement as it touched on various areas, including data regulation, antitrust measures, consumer protection and intellectual property.
After challenges were raised by the industry, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Ministry of Commerce initiated a review of the policy.
“Since then, no one in the industry has seen a fully revised draft. At a meeting attended by industry leaders last year, a five-bullet slide was presented outlining the broad objectives of the policy, including what e-commerce companies should do for consumers,” a senior executive at an e-commerce platform told Moneycontrol.
Amid delays in the implementation of the e-commerce policy, companies like Flipkart, Amazon, Zomato, Swiggy, Tata, Reliance, Shiprocket and Meesho have said that e-commerce companies could become targets for petty discounting in the absence of clear guidelines pointing out what specifically constitutes fraud, the report added.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) was reported to have expressed “deep disappointment over the inordinate delay in implementing e-commerce policies and rules under the Consumer Protection Act,” adding that the delay would create an “aggravated situation” for Indian business.
Currently, Flipkart leads the Indian e-commerce market with a 48% market share, according to an AllianceBernstein report. Meanwhile, SoftBank-backed Meesho has emerged as the fastest growing e-commerce platform in terms of user base in India. According to an Invest India report, the e-commerce business in India is expected to reach $325 billion by 2030.
