CAIT Protests Against E-commerce Giants Amazon and Flipkart The trade organization alleges Amazon and Flipkart of unfair trade practices and violation of FDI policy.

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on December 12th protested on Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, against the proposed move of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to join hands with Amazon and Flipkart for onboarding of traders on their e-commerce portals. "Government joining hands with established tax avoiders who are known for their ulterior motives and unhealthy business practices over the globe is highly deplorable. These companies are habitual economic offenders who have a mandate to control and monopolise the e-commerce and retail business of the Country and it is very unfortunate that MSME Ministry is falling in their trap," said CAIT in its official press release.

Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary-General of CAIT talking about his organisation stance said, "We as a body of 7 crore traders condemn the move of MSME Ministry to support on-boarding of traders on Amazon and Flipkart." He further added, "It is a complete sham that they want MSME to digitize. We are not at all against digitization but these companies are flouting laws and indulging in unfair trade practices."

The press release by CAIT alleges the violation of FDI policy by Amazon and Flipkart on its e-commerce portals and said, "it is nothing but a deep-rooted conspiracy of Amazon and Flipkart to enter into crony capitalism under the garb of bringing foreign investment which is being used for cash burning in maintaining predatory pricing and deep discounting, controlling inventory, having preferential seller system and exclusivity of products."

The traders have urged MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari to reject any plans to make fee-based arrangements for small enterprises with online marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart as they were not willing to accept any kind of collusion between e-tailers and the government. Khandelwal informed that on 27th December, CAIT organisation members will go on a one-day hunger strike to mark their disapproval and protest against Amazon and Flipkart plans to undertake MSME segment under its umbrella.

Flipkart refused to comment on the matter and we did not receive a response from the Amazon India. Now what needs to be seen is how the e-commerce giants respond to the ongoing rejection and protest faced by them from the trading community when they are aggressively trying to have small enterprises sell on their platform.