AMN / NEW DELHI
A group of Indian traders has expressed skepticism over much publicised Walmart and Flipkart business deal. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has said that it will closely study the metrics of Walmart-Flipkart deal and move to the Government or appropriate Authority to seek a ban on the deal till the time all related issues are resolved satisfactorily.
“Its not an ordinary deal between two companies but certain important issues concerning FDI policy, data security, competition, unfair practices etc. have been involved. Since the deal has a greater ramification on India’s retail trade, a closer scrutiny is certainly warranted” said CAIT in a statement said.
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CAIT Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal said that key issues of the matter is whoever controls the platform control data and digital intelligence. Therefore, being the controller of the Company, the Walmart may use the data and other information as per its will & wish and the possibility of compromising the data can not be ruled out. Second important aspect is that the Owner can squeeze and dictate anything and as such being the virtual owner, the Walmart will always be in a position to dictate its terms and conditions.Thirdly, it is much more difficult for the Govt to control & regulate foreign owned platforms particularly in e commerce sector which has no boundaries.
Another factor which needs to be taken into account is the situation where a major player controls production to inventory management, marketplace to logistics, payments and delivery and control all this through global controls on data and digital intelligence.It is more vulnerable when there is no policy for e commerce and neither a Regulatory Authority to control & regulate the market.
The Walmart-Flipkart deal is nothing but in long run a clear attempt to control & dominate the much potential retail trade of India by Walmart through e commerce which is only a bridge to reach out to offline retail market of India.
Mr. Khandelwal has demanded that Government should immediately frame a national policy for e commerce and constitute a Regulatory Authority to regulate and e commerce business in India and till such time, the deal should be put in abeyance by the Government and a close scrutiny should be held in the entire deal.