The Confederation of All India Traders came down heavily on Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and strongly condemned the decision of the Gujarat Government announcing a tie up between Gujarat State Handloom and Handicrafts Development Cooperation Ltd (GSHHDC) and E-commerce Marketplace entity Flipkart who are under investigation by the Competition Commission of India for violation of Indian laws and breach of FDI rules.
CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said “it is extremely unfortunate and regrettable that on one hand such a senior Minister of the Central Government Piyush Goyal has publicly expressed his concern for the unethical and unlawful business practices being carried out on Flipkart, and on the other hand Chief Minister Rupani has joined hands with Flipkart. He said, this decision of Rupani not only contradicts and conflicts with the Central Government stand but it also hurts the sentiments of 7 crore traders of India whose livelihood is being severely affected due to the predatory business model of Flipkart. Khandelwal further added that this action by Gujarat CM also shows his insensitivity and indifference to the small retailers of Gujarat who are involved in a nationwide agitation against Flipkart’s business model.
BC Bhartia CAIT National President urged the Gujarat Chief Minister to immediately reconsider this decision and withdraw any such collaboration with Flipkart as it sends a negative impression about the approach of the Government. He asked, “How can Government collude and collaborate with Law violators? “ This is a reprehensible action by the Gujarat Government and raises serious questions on the intent of the Government.
The CAIT is leading a nationwide movement against Marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon over the last 5 months and has brought to the notice of the entire nation, various blatant violations of the FDI policy being carried out by Amazon and Flipkart in particular deep discounting, predatory pricing, inventory control, preferential seller treatment which are not permitted under FDI laws for marketplace. CAIT’s agitation and submission of evidence has prompted action by the Competition Commission of India who have found prima facie breach of Law.