RSS affiliate to oppose FDI in e-commerce

Swadeshi Jagran Manch to pass a resolution against key economic reform measures of BJP-led govt at its national council meet later this month

A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliate has decided to oppose foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce, food processing and marketing sectors.

The Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), a key affiliate of the RSS, would pass a resolution against the economic reforms of the BJP-led government at its national council meeting slated later this month. “We will urge the government to take back its decision. FDI in these sectors would go against the interests of small shopkeepers,” SJM’s national co-convener Ashwani Mahajan told PTI. The Manch will meet in Bhopal for its annual National Council meeting on May21 and 22.

The Manch believes that FDI in e-commerce was coming in an "illegal" way earlier and allowing it now amounts to rewarding those who had been flouting the rules and circumventing the law.

Mahajan said e-Commerce companies have been adopting "predatory pricing" by allowing heavy discounting on products which are adversely affecting the small Indian shopkeepers.

"These companies are incurring huge losses by adopting predatory pricing of products and their sole purpose in doing so is to capture the huge Indian consumer market, that will render the traditional shopkeepers jobless," he said.

It is a reality that such transactions have made life easy and products come cheap, he said.

He said though e-Commerce is not so prevalent in purchase of products of daily use, online buying is on the rise.

The SJM leader said there are nearly 2,000 small and big portals involved in e-commerce, though most most transactions are limited to a few big ones.

Mahajan apprehended if e-commerce continues to grow at the present pace, it may reach 4 per cent of GDP by the year 2020.

In 2009, total retail business of e-commerce companies was hardly Rs 6,000 crore, which shot up to Rs 78,000 crore in 2013.

The SJM leader said even chemists have been effected by it as some portals are also offering discounts on medicines in the Indian market.

The SJM has been frequently opposing government's decisions. It had earlier protested against field trial of genetically modified (GM) Mustard crop and the policy on Intellectual Property Rights, among other issues.