New Delhi: The economic wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), has asked the Central government to ban foreign e-commerce firms like Amazon and eBay alleging that they are ‘killing domestic players in the Indian market'.
Not only this,it has also pitched for banning Indian players such as Flipkart which have high foreign fund infusion.
SJM leaders earlier this month met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and lodged a strong protest over BJP-led NDA government's overall foreign direct investment (FDI) policy. They have also sought a white paper on FDI.
Ashwani Mahajan, SJM national convener, told Indian Express, “We are of the opinion that FDI in e-commerce should be prohibited by law. Though we do not allow FDI in e-commerce sites, they circumvent the law to sell their product in the country.”
“Indian e-commerce firms like Flipkart have turned to be foreign now with funding from outside We have asked the Finance Minister to plug loopholes in the law,” Ashwani added.
The Indian laws do not allow FDI in e-commerce sites that sell products to customers directly, it allows FDI in market places that link sellers and buyers.
Replying to a question from M P Achuthan, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs RD Danve had said in the Rajya Sabha that government does not have any data on the e-commerce industry and that there is no proposal under consideration for a separate regulatory framework for e-commerce.
In November 2014, a report on e-commerce by Motilal Oswal Securities predicted that the USD 11-billion e-commerce market in India is expected to grow 37 per cent to reach USD 20 billion by the end of 2015.
Meanwhile, SJM leaders also disapproved raising the FDI limit in defence and insurance sectors.
