Industry demands parity in online, offline FDI policy

With the government holding discussions on FDI in e-commerce with various stakeholders, industry today said there should be a parity between online and offline retail policy.
"Ficci feels that FDI should be allowed in B2C e-commerce with a focus on sourcing from manufacturers and in a phased manner. The idea is to emphasize that there has to be a parity between online and offline retail policy with respect to FDI levels," the chamber said.
However, CII said that eCommerce in India is at relatively nascent stage and the market is yet to attain full maturity level.
"While CII is favourably inclined towards 100 per cent FDI in B2C route, the sector should be given some time to come to a level where it can compete globally," it said.

The Government today discussed various issues related with foreign direct investment in e-commerce sector with several stakeholders including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and industry associations like CII, Ficci, NASSCOM etc.
At present, 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) is allowed only in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and not in retail segment.

"By broadening the scope of foreign investments in e-commerce to include inventory apart from marketplace, the government would be placing the Indian industry at par with other emerging markets where both marketplace and inventory models are able to operate freely".
"As the policy is reviewed, it is important to focus on development and encouragement of MSME sector which is the certainly the driving force behind the vision of Make in India. This should ensure domestic manufacturing gets impetus," Ficci stated.

Echoing similar sentiment, CII said it looks forward to a policy that catalyzes economic growth, spurs manufacturing especially for the SME sector and enables integration of domestic business with global business.
The industry body pitched for establishing a level playing field for all stakeholders in the e-commerce sector, along with ensuring safeguards for Indian players such as mandatory local sourcing, privacy, safety against tax evasion, checking e-wastage.