Online sellers seek Sitharaman's help for recover dues from Snapdeal

In a letter AIOVA also urged minister to setup Trai like regulator for e-commerce firms

Several online sellers have sought  commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman's intervention to get troubled e-commerce company Snapdeal to pay their dues. In a letter to her, the All India Online Vendors' Association (AIOVA) said Snapdeal was not paying sellers citing technical issues, according to a report in the Economic Times.

AIOVA also urged the minister to setup a Trai-like regulator for the e-commerce sector to stop data manipulation.

Earlier in February, the sellers' association had written to Sitharaman that Snapdeal may default on payments. AIOVA estimates that every month, Snapdeal holds Rs 300-400 crore in the form of outstanding dues and goods-in-transit, reports VC circle.

Snapdeal, which is backed by SoftBank Group Corp, was under the scanner in February for job cuts and shutting down some operations. The company was said to have laid off 500-600 employees across the e-commerce marketplace. 

In an email to employees on 22 February, co-founder Kunal Bahl finally accepted that the company was cutting jobs and took a full pay cut for himself. Snapdeal has also put on sale FreeCharge and is in the talks with South Africa-based internet group Naspers, to sell it for $300 million