Traders body CAIT calls for protests during Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Delhi visit

Ahead of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ India visit, trade body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has announced it will organise protest across 300 cities in India, alleging unfair practices by the Indian arm of the ecommerce giant. 

CAIT will also hold a protest in Delhi where Bezos is expected to address sellers on the platform during its flagship event.

The body has also ‘demanded’ that Indian industry leaders, including Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy and Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani boycott the firm’s small and medium business summit, ‘Smbhav’ in New Delhi on January 15. Both the leaders have been listed as speakers for the event.

Addressing a press conference called by the traders body, CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said, “.. traders and their families have been extremely adversely affected due to the predatory and malafide business practices of Amazon and Flipkart. They are economic terrorists who are out to destabilise the livelihoods of small retailers and plunder our nation by avoiding GST and Income Tax.” 

The body represents the interests of 40,000 retail associations pan India, he added. 

Khandelwal also spoke about the alleged foreign direct investment rules and competition law. The  CCI (competition commission of India) on Monday ordered a probe into the Amazon and Flipkart’s online marketplace business . 

CAIT had previously met the minister of commerce Piyush Goyal in October 2019, alleging that the online retailers were not following the Press Note 2 and FDI policy. 

The minister had directed (DPIIT) Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to examine the business model of the online marketplaces. 

The trade body has also filed a case in the Rajasthan High Court over the companies’ alleged FDI violations.