The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing Walmart CEO of trying to put pressure on the government to open up the country’s retail market by making a plea for stability in business environment.

“We firmly believe there is no instability in the economic foundations or policy structure of the government. These kind of rhetoric by global players is a pressure tactic to find a headway into the large existing business potential of India’s large retail market and directly control our economy by indulging in unfair and monopolistic business practices,” the letter written by CAIT National Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon had written to Modi stating that a stable, welcoming regulatory environment would allow the company to continue to invest in creating more jobs and building infrastructure that benefited Indian suppliers and customers.

Khandelwal said the Walmart chief had made his observations at a time when Commerce & Minister Piyush Goyal had made a public statement reiterating that e-commerce entities have no right to offer any discount or indulge in predatory pricing.

Khandelwal added that over the last few weeks, he had pointed out the various “unfair and unethical’’ business practices of large foreign retail companies operating in India, to the Commerce Minister. “They have blatantly and openly violated the FDI policy by indulging in malpractices such as deep discounting, predatory pricing, exclusivity & discriminatory seller treatment and control over inventory,” he said, adding that the government should not cede any ground to these global players.

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