Government likely to come out with draft e-commerce policy soon

The government is likely to come out with the draft of the much awaited e-commerce policy soon. The prospects of the policy being unveiled soon looked brighter as Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday held final round of consultations with industry players like Amazon, Flipkart, and Tata Digital among others. Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh and Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Rajesh Kumar Singh were also present in the meeting. Key issues like predatory tactics adopted by big industry players, deep discounting and distinction between inventory-led e-commerce platforms and marketplaces, were discussed in the meeting, sources said. Encouraging digitisation of small and medium enterprises and whether to keep fallback liability on e-commerce platforms, were some other issues which came up for discussion during the consultations, they added. There was unanimity in the meeting that the e-commerce policy should be brought as soon as possible along with changes in the Consumer Protection Act, in the light of growing e-commerce industry and changing market dynamics, sources said.