Hard lobbying by trade bodies shuts doors on ecommerce

Kolkata: E-mails from small and regional retailers across the country to officials a the Centre and state chief ministers, accompanied by hard lobbying by their national bodies with the prime minister’s office (PMO) and key ministers may have played a part in the government not allowing resumption of sale of non-essential products on e-commerce platforms from Monday.

"Grateful to Hon'ble PM@NarendraModi ji for the clarification that e-commerce companies can only supply essential goods during the lockdown. This will create a level playing field for small retailers," Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday.

Mobile retailers body, All India Mobile Retailers Association president Arvinder Khurana said it would take at least 10-12 months for retailers to bounce back after the lockdown. "If the e-commerce companies were exempted (from the lockdown), the damage would have been irreparable," he said


ET spoke to four senior trade leaders to understand what the brick-and-mortar retail lobby, comprising 200 national and state bodies, did since Wednesday, when the ministry of home affairs initially permitted e-commerce companies to sell both essential and non-essential products from from April 20.

After the Wednesday notification, the first thing which apex body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) did was to approach Goyal, the union commerce minister
It also wrote to the PMO describing how disadvantaged the seven crore traders felt with the government only allowing e-commerce even though 40 lakh kiranas were operational during the lockdown ensuring availability of all essentials without increasing prices.

CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said his association was up in arms against the notification from Day1 and sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home minister Amit Shah, Defence minister Rajnath Singh and Goyal.

“Allowing e-commerce for non-essential is not necessary right now and that too at the cost of small retailers who would be further marginalised,” he said.

At the same time, war rooms were opened in others offline trade associations that represent retailers of mobile phone, consumer electronics, fast moving consumer goods, apparel, paper traders and transporters. Leaders of these national and state level bodies sent emails to the PMO and the key ministries and the chief ministers to provide a level playing field to offline retailers and allow them to home deliver goods.

Retailers Association of India, the body that represents organised retail was active as well. Besides sending emails to relevant officials, it also voiced its opposition on social media, and these posts were widely popularised by its members.

On Saturday, CAIT’s Khandelwal received a call from the home ministry on the issues faced. The overall issue may have been discussed in the group of ministers meeting on Corona virus on Saturday. By Sunday morning, the government issued its clarifiication.