E-Commerce Draft Policy - India

Data Localisation Measures

1. Various social media and e-commerce companies that have their head office outside India like Google, Facebook, Amazon that generate user data through ecommerce platforms, social media and search engines have to store data exclusively in India.

2. Government of India to have access to data stored in India for national security and public policy subject to privacy and consent rules.

3. Government of India to incentivise domestic data storage in India, provide data infrastructure, make domestic data storage more economically attractive.

India First Measures

1. Limited Inventory based B2C model for online sale of locally produced goods to be allowed, as long as-
 a) "Made in India" products are sold on the platform.
 b) The founder or promoter is resident Indian.
 c) The company is controlled by Indian management and foreign equity does not exceed 49%.   

2. Government of India to promote businesses in India through preferential treatment for digital products created within India and custom duties on electronic transmissions.

3. Government of India to help e-commerce companies to raise funds locally and incentivise investments by large Indian companies in startups.

4. Government of India to empower the Indian e-commerce entrepreneur by allowing founders to have control over their e-commerce business despite having small shareholding.  

Measures to Support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME's)

1. Establishing an e-commerce retail platform in public-private partnership (PPP) mode exclusively for MSME vendors and suppliers.

2. Implementing pilot initiatives for online sale of products from small industry clusters such as Moradabad, Ludhiana, Aurangabad and Meerut.

3. Reexamining the TCS provisions in GST which impose additional burden on SME's.

Measures on Press Note 3

1. Government to create a separate wing in the Directorate of Enforcement to handle grievances related to implementation of Press Note 3.

2. The e-commerce companies not able to benefit the group companies of the e-commerce marketplace. This is likely to have impact on companies such as Amazon since it holds a stake in some of its seller entities.

3. Deep discounts given by e-commerce companies are to be wiped out as Government of India proposes to introduce a sunset clause for differential pricing strategies.

How will payments be monitored ?

1. A centralised agency for KYC data to be setup to reduce the KYC cost for individual operators and burden on the consumer.

2. A social credit database to be setup through PPP to facilitate digital lending.

How will the Sector be Regulated ?

1. A single legislation will address all aspects of e-commerce industry.

2. A single regulator would be setup to consider Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) issues and consumer protection among other issues.

3. Competition Commission of India (CCI) will examine the entry barriers and anti-competitive practices.

4. There will be more scrutiny of merger and acquisitions that may disrupt the competition.

Source : The Economic Times


Do Follow :-
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TaxCreators/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/taxcreators/