India SME Forum appraise PM, the pain of growing compliance burden to relook at proposed e-commerce amendments

The country's largest association of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), India SME Forum has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to relook at the growing compliance burden for ecommerce in the proposed amendments to ecommerce regulations.

Having over 86,000 members from about 270 different industries, the association has pleaded the PM to save the MSME sector from negative trickle down impact of the proposed measures.

The new amendments proposed in the Consumer Protection (ecommerce) Rules 2020 will be counterproductive for the growth of the ecommerce sector overall and the MSMEs dependent on the ecommerce sector, it says.

Almost 70 per cent of the association’s members are engaged in selling products online with majority of them involved in B2B or business-to-business dealings while about 30 per cent of them sell their products directly to consumers through various marketplaces.

The consumer affairs ministry had on June 21 unveiled the draft proposal aimed at further tightening rules for ecommerce marketplaces, including barring entities affiliated to those marketplaces from selling on the platforms and restricting flash sales. The bill also seeks to strengthen consumer protections.