The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has sought comments from various ministries and central agencies to formulate regulations around e-commerce in India, sources told The Economic Times.
Those tapped include the Ministries of Consumer Affairs and Ministry of Information Technology (MeitY), and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and India Post, with whom the DPIIT during a recent meet discussed its draft regulation – first proposed in February 2019, the report said.
This was done to avoid conflicts with upcoming legislations such as the consumer protection bill, data policies and taxation policies which would impact e-commerce, social media and digital companies in India, a senior government official told the paper.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
“The process is on and some issues have also been identified,” the official said, but did not specify what suggestions were made. Other senior officials who are engaged in drafting the policy did not respond to queries, as per the report.
Industry sources expect the second draft will address functioning of e-markets like Flipkart and Amazon, incentivise local capital into the sector, restrict bulk buying of smartphones, white goods, electronics and fashion items, and encourage local players (more than 51 percent ownership is Indian), it added.
“The setting up of a regulator for the ecommerce sector is also on the cards, which is bound to face resistance from companies,” one senior e-commerce firm executive said.
Others said guidance and restrictions related to consumer protection, data localisation, digital payments and e-commerce exports would be among the aspects addressed.
Development in this direction comes after more than a year and follows MoS for Commerce and Ministry Som Prakash’s comments in October where he assured that several e-commerce and trade policies are “being finalised.”
Another senior official said there is “some pressure” on the DPIIT to release the second draft soon.”
