Indian Traders Up in Arms Against Walmart's Entry in Country’s E-Commerce Space

Indian traders are opposing Walmart's proposed acquisition of a 77% stake in domestic e-retailing platform Flipkart. They claim that India lacks a clear policy on e-commerce and are taking advantage of the situation; the global giants are making money and molding markets to their own advantage.

Traders in India have announced a three-month marathon protest to stop the foray of American giant Walmart into the country's e-retail scene. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) will kick-start the 90-day protest against the $16 billion deal between Walmart-and domestic e-commerce platform Flipkart starting September 15. The body has also announced a nationwide strike on September 28 as part of the protests.

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"We are furthering our struggle and opposition to the Walmart-Flipkart deal and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector. By calling for the nationwide trade strike, we want to convey the message that the nation stands in solidarity with us," Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal told Sputnik.

Confederation Of All India Traders Calls for #BharatTradeBandh on 28 September against #WalmartFlipkartDeal & #FDI in #Retail #FDI norms violation #28September #KhudraVyaparBachao @CimGOI @sureshpprabhu @FinMinIndia @praveendel @BCBHARTIA pic.twitter.com/Klunyw0jHo

— CAIT (@TEAMCAIT) September 4, 2018

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The domestic retail business is in very bad shape and neighborhood shop owners are struggling. E-commerce marketplace has been indulging in practices like predatory pricing, deep discounting and loss funding to kill the small shop owners, Khandelwal added.

The traders' body, last month, had filed a petition in National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) challenging the approval given by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the deal. 

READ MORE: India's 60 Million Shopkeepers Up in Arms After Walmart's Flipkart Acquisition

In India, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy in e-commerce is more or less regulated on the basis of a government directive called the Press Note No. 3 of 2016. The commerce and industry ministry in India notifies FDI policies through press notes. Press Note 3 enlists guidelines for FDI in the e-commerce sector and says that no discounting is allowed and that no inventory ownership directly or indirectly is allowed by e-commerce marketplaces.