On Friday evening, following the announcement that the nationwide lockdown would be extended by another two weeks, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) urged the government to allow non-essential items to be sold by retail shops for a few hours during the night.
In a statement, the body said that the decision of the government to extend the lockdown must be respected even though traders were expected it to be lifted. Quoting CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal, the traders body said that millions of retailers across India are facing severe financial issues and are on the verge of collapse.
“Even the existing inventory is unprotected and the quality is fast deteriorating. Cases of theft have also risen in unprotected and unguarded markets. Mr Khandelwal added that the Home Ministry must issue clear guidelines to allow sale of several non- essential products across the country which have now become very important for citizens such has mobile phones, tablets, infant products, stationery, electrical and maintenance products, innerwear garments, optical shops. These shops must be allowed to open irrespective of their location in neighbourhood shops, standalone shops or in market complexes.”
CAIT added that its National President B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal have suggested that, if the government feels allowing these shops to operate during the day is a problem, they should be allowed to do so for a few hours at night.
“This will significantly help the traders in a big way and provide much needed relief to the customers as well who are facing lot of difficulties due to non- availability of products,” CAIT said.
CAIT said that both Bhartia and Khandelwal maintained that e-commerce should only be permitted for essential products as “delivery boys pose a serious threat of carrying the infection and in a situation where retailers are barely in a position to open their shops to due to lockdown restrictions, maintaining a level playing field is also important.”
No mention of allowing e-commerce to sell non-essential items in new rules, says CAIT
On Friday, after the Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the nationwide lockdown would be extended by another two weeks, multiple media outlets reported that the new rules and relaxations included permitting non-essential deliveries for e-commerce companies in Orange and Green zone.
However, CAIT has said that the guidelines make no mention of allowing e-commerce to deliver non-essential items in orange or green zones. CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal tweeted saying, “It is unfortunate that the E-commerce companies have become habitual offenders in misinterpreting MHA guidelines and twisting it in their favour to misguide the various State Governments and authorities and to create unnecessary confusion.”
In a statement, Khandelwal said, “It is quite clear yet again from the MHA Guidelines issued today, 1st May, 2020 that E-commerce will be allowed to operate in Red Zones for Essential goods as per 7 (ii) e. There is no mention of allowing Ecommerce to deliver non-essentials in Orange or Green Zones.”
“Therefore, the sinister campaign of certain e commerce companies for allowing them to deal in non essential commodities is ill founded and not withstand with the guidelines of MHA. The intention of the Government is very clear to allow e commerce to deliver essential goods only and no where in the guidelines, there is any provision which allows them to deliver non essential commodities in other zones,” he said.
According to the MHA guidelines, only essential e-commerce activities would be allowed in Red zones—which include most large metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and so on. However, with respect to orange and green zones, section 10 states that “All other activities will be permitted activities, which are not specifically prohibited/ permitted with restrictions in the various Zones, under these guidelines. However, States/ UTs, based on their assessment of the situation, and with the primary objective of keeping the spread of COVID-19 in check, may allow only select activities from out of the permitted activities, with such restrictions as felt necessary.”
In addition, Section 11 states that all States/UTs shall allow inter-state moment of goods/cargo, including empty trucks, a move which could facilitate the logistics operations of e-commerce companies.
SnapDeal CEO Kunal Bahl welcomed the MHA’s revised guidelines. “Appreciate MHA's guideline on opening eCommerce for all categories outside Red Zones. It is now important for all eCommerce and logistics companies to serve the consumers with all their needs in a manner that is safe and ensures everyone's good health. The work begins now,” he tweeted.
CAIT’s statement comes on the same day that CAIT announced its plan to launch a nationwide e-commerce platform next month, bharatemarket, which is intended as an e-commerce marketplace for all retail traders across India. The initiative is planned as part of a tie-up with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and hopes to connect millions of small retail shops and Kiranas to a nationwide digital e-commerce platform.
E-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart had urged the government to allow them to sell non-essential items too during lockdown. Earlier, after the second extension was given taking the lockdown up to May 3, the government clarified that e-commerce companies cannot sell non-essential items during the period of the lockdown.
On Friday, Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Brian T. Olsavsky, said in an earnings call that the company suffered its biggest impact to operations worldwide in India. “I think the biggest impact internationally has been in India where, of course, similar to all companies in India, we're now only fulfilling our essential goods such as grocery,” he said. “So that's cut back a lot on our offering and we will further expand when the Indian government announces that we're allowed to resume operations. So we're in a bit of a holding pattern except for grocery in India.”
