As per an Economic Times report, national apex body of traders and retailers, Federation of All India Vyapar Mandal (FAIVM), has requested Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and industry and commerce minister Piyush Goyal to initiate enquiries on some suspected aspects of festive mega sales announced by two big e-tailers.
In a letter jointly sent to the two Central ministers, FAIVM alleged that a hefty discount in the nature of predatory pricing; cash back by credit/debit card banks, and high rate of interest on EMIs offered for buyers are needed to be scrutinised thoroughly. FAIVM has further shown its concerns whether GST being collected by vendors is being properly deposited with the government as per norms as about 6.5 lakh new vendors have been added by e-commerce portals and about most of sales are happening in tier-III and rural areas where awareness on GST is not adequate.
VK Bansal, National General Secretary, FAIVM said that share of e-commerce is likely to double this festive season sales from 5 per cent to 10per cent. The gross merchandise value by e-commerce in this festive season is expected to touch $7 billion i.e. about Rs 50,000 crore. It indicates about 84 per cent increases over the last year’s festive sale.
About 50 million new shoppers are expected to be added in e-shoppers’ list, out of which about 50 per cent will join from tier-III cities and rural areas. On the other hand, e-commerce platforms have added about 6.5 lakh new vendors, mostly from Tier-II and Ttier-III cities.
