• Notification Date: 28-12-2022
• Notification No: N/A

CAIT Announces Three Month-long Agitations over E-commerce Rules, GST Rationalisation

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has announced a three month-long agitation from January 1 till March 31, 2023. The move has been made with the aim to put pressure on the central government to bring e-commerce policy and e-commerce rules under Consumer Protection Act. 

CAIT announced that from January 1 to January 7, the trade associations all over the country will undertake a ‘national e-mail’ campaign. Under this campaign bulk e-mails will be sent to both Union and state governments and all political parties, seeking their attention towards the problems being faced by traders due to a highly vitiated e-commerce created by foreign e-commerce companies and much complex GST taxation system. 

In a statement, CAIT stated that “it is a matter of great regret that even after spending more than three years, the Central Government has not been able to bring e-commerce policy and e-commerce rules under Consumer Protection Act whereas the foreign e-commerce companies are bent upon in violating the law and the FDI policy quite openly under the nose of the government and no action has been taken so far”. 

Along with the Central Government, the state governments are also to be blamed since trade and commerce is a state subject. Even after suffering huge losses of GST revenue at the hands of foreign e-commerce companies, the state governments have not taken any actions. 

CAIT National President B.C. Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the business community of the country is disappointed that there is no policy or rule on e-commerce trade. Traders all over the country will observe January 17 as ‘Liberate Trade from E-commerce Day’ and trade associations will hold a dharna all over the country. The aim of the protest is to urge the Central and state governments to accept and implement the traders charter of CAIT, reported Newsroom Odisha. 

“The traders across the country will observe a day-long hunger on January 20, 2023 at more than 1,000 places,” the statement said. In February, trade associations of all states will take out rallies in their respective cities and will submit memorandums to respective chief ministers and finance ministers. In March, state level traders' conferences will be held in all states and a three-day national traders’ conference will be held in the first week of April 2023 in New Delhi.