The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) will stage protests across 300 cities including New Delhi on Wednesday against Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ India visit.
CAIT, which has 7 crore small traders as its members, has been alleging that e-commerce companies including Amazon and Flipkart are flouting the norms of the country’s FDI policy over the past two years.
Ahead of Bezos’ India visit, the Competition Commission of India has also ordered a probe in the business practices of e-commerce players on the petition of Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, which is a member association of CAIT. It has asked its Director-General Investigations to submit the report on the probe in 60 days.
Speaking to reporters, Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT, said, “The next 60 days will be very crucial for the trading community. We will ensure that our agitation against the malpractices of e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart reaches a logical conclusion. We are reiterating our commitment to compel these e-commerce companies to comply with provisions of FDI policy in letter and spirit.”
He added, “We have submitted evidences to CCI substantiating our allegations of their malpractices including deep discounting and predatory pricing through the petition filed by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh.”
CAIT has been stating that 7 crore traders members have been adversely impacted due to alleged malpractices of e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart.
“Amazon and Flipkart have also caused huge GST and Income Tax revenue loss to the government and CAIT will soon meet the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to request her to institute an investigation into avoidance of GST and Income Tax liabilities caused by the malpractices of Amazon and Flipkart,” Khandelwal added.