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The Centre, which wants to make the country-of-origin declaration under the Consumer Protection Act mandatory for e-commerce players soon, has not yet fixed a deadline for it. This is because the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is still having parallel consultations with industry players, who are seeking more clarity on the issue.
The DPIIT recently held a meeting with the Consumer Affairs Ministry on the Consumer Protection Act and the proposed legislation on packaging, to understand how the mandatory requirement for display of country of origin should be applied for goods sold online, an official told BusinessLine .
“In the meetings the DPIIT has so far held with e-commerce companies, a number of issues were raised, including defining country of origin, which need to be ironed out. Discussions are on; it is a work in progress,” the official said.
DPITT had earlier asked online players to start displaying the country of origin on new products listed on their websites by August 1, 2020, and then, in a month’s time or so, implement the mandate for existing items as well. E-commerce companies, however, did not agree to the deadline and wanted more time.
The idea behind the government’s insistence on display of the country of origin is to give buyers the option of avoiding items from certain countries, for instance China, with which India is engaged in a border conflict.
E-commerce players have asked DPIIT to give a clear definition of ‘country of origin’, and whether imported components, too, have to be accounted for, so that sellers can mention it correctly on the packaging.
Challenge for small players
Display of the country of origin for new products on sale is already mandatory for the Government e-Market (GeM) portal for procurement by Central and State bodies, and it has a provision for indication of percentage of local content in products. But many e-commerce companies say that this would be difficult for small sellers to follow.
“Small sellers will find it difficult to get details such as whether a product was assembled in India and the proportion of imported components used in the product,” said an industry player.
Another senior executive with an e-commerce company also pointed out that the Consumer Protection Act will make the country-of-origin declaration mandatory only for imported goods, but the DPIIT was insisting on tagging every good sold through their platforms without any formal directions.
With millions of product listed by sellers on each e-commerce platform, displaying the country of origin for every listing is a challenge. Leading e-commerce companies have begun asking sellers to mandatorily provide information for new and existing listings, but the road ahead is not smooth.
Ankur Pahwa, Partner and National Leader - E-commerce and Consumer Internet, EY India, said: “Many large companies have already begun the exercise, and will certainly help consumers make informed choice on their purchase. Ensuring compliance especially with respect to small ticket-items may be a challenge.”
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