The Retailers Association of India (RAI), which represents small, as well as large retailers in the country, is crying foul over the government’s classification of retailers as brick and mortar or e-commerce players. According to the association, retail is a business that should be classified on the basis of category of goods and services provided and not on the basis of selling channels. The ire follows an invitation by the government for a stakeholders’ consultation meeting on an FDI policy in the e-commerce sector.
CEO Kumar Rajagopalan says, “We at RAI believe that there should be a level playing field in respect to FDI among different retail formats. It is our concern that although the outcome of e-commerce and retail in physical world is the same, the treatment meted out by the Government of India to the two players in the same market is inequitable. Hence, the double standard of the Government in allowing e-commerce with foreign investment in India while not allowing multi brand retail in the physical world is discriminatory.”
It is due this contention that retailers have decided to not participate in today’s stakeholders consultation meeting on FDI policy on e-commerce sector called by DIPP, according RAI.
Rajagopalan adds that RAI had also earlier requested the government to create a simple FDI policy for retail without segregating retail by brands and channels. They had also submitted that the word “retailer” cannot be allowed to have a different meaning for players in the Internet world and players in the physical world.