A committee has been formed to examine issues related to FDI in eCommerce, Piyush Goyal informed the Parliament on July 24. The committee was formed on July 12 under DPIIT’s additional secretary and includes members from the department of commerce, department of consumer affairs, department of legal affairs and MSME ministry. He also said that the government has received suggestions from stakeholders on the draft e-commerce policy which are currently under consideration. On December 26, 2018, the then DIPP published Press Note 2 of 2018 which amended and tightened regulations applicable to e-commerce entities that have FDI, it came into effect on February 1, 2019. The policy has caused significant disruption in the operations of e-commerce companies: Walmart had privately told the US government that India's FDI in e-commerce policy was regressive in January this year. In a meeting with Commerce minister Piyush Goyal in June this year, Indian e-commerce companies raised concerns about non-compliance with the FDI policy, highlighting that if e-commerce companies were mere marketplaces, then there wouldn’t be losses in thousands of crores. They also highlighted that Press Note 2 had clauses regarding statutory certification by auditors and those haven’t been announced by RBI. CCI's market survey sought details on FDI from e-commerce companies It is worth noting that in a market study carried out by the Competition Commission of India, it sought details on how inventory based models work, on pricing of products and control over the pricing, from all major e-commerce firms in India. On FDI in e-commerce, the …
