Ease of doing business for MSMEs: If e-commerce policy and related rules in Consumer Protection Act are notified and implemented, the offline traders are keen to have their shop on e-commerce platforms besides having business activities at their physical outlets, said traders’ body CAIT on Sunday based on a survey. The online survey conducted by its research arm CAIT Research & Trade Development Society in over 40 cities among more than 5,000 traders and trade associations from September 25 to October 3, 2022, noted that 92 per cent of traders believed big e-commerce companies are killing their business by their monopolistic terms and flouting policies and laws.
Moreover, 80 per cent of traders believed that mandatory GST registration for doing business on e-commerce is a big hurdle. The government in June this year had announced waiving the mandatory registration for businesses supplying goods intra-state via e-commerce with turnover up to Rs 40 lakh. The government however is yet to notify the changes.
“The details of the scheme will be worked out by the Law Committee of the Council. The scheme would be tentatively implemented with effect from January 1, 2023, subject to preparedness on the portal as well as by e-commerce operators,” the government had noted in the recommendations of the 47th GST council meeting in June.
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“This condition needs to be abolished in order to facilitate small traders to take advantage of e-commerce in widening their business. CAIT will soon meet Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who is a staunch advocate for small businesses and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman,” said CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal in a statement.
The survey further noted that 94 per cent of traders said regulatory authority for e-commerce is necessary to ensure robust growth of business online while 92 per cent felt that the current FDI policy in retail needs necessary amendments. Moreover, about 72 per cent of traders expressed concern over the delay in the implementation of the e-commerce policy and consumer rules for e-commerce.
“In comparison to offline retail, the e-commerce trade is completely free from all kinds of restrictions, giving a free way to any person to trade anything without caring for any laws, which is a sorry state of affairs. Therefore, the government is under obligation to make entire retail trade transparent and law compliant,” Bhartia and Khandelwal said.
Also read: SIDBI’s 59-min MSME loan scheme: Growth in loans sanctioned and disbursed drops, shows govt data
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