Finance Ministry Objects To Plan For New E-Commerce Rules: Report
NDTV
It's not clear how the objections from the finance ministry - a dozen in total - will ultimately be reflected in the proposed rule changes, first floated in June.
India's plan to tighten rules on its fast-growing e-commerce market has run into internal government dissent, memos reviewed by Reuters show, with the Ministry of Finance describing some proposals as "excessive" and "without economic rationale".
The memos offer a rare glimpse of high-stakes policy-making governing a market already featuring global retail heavyweights from Amazon to Walmart, plus domestic players like Reliance Industries and Tata Group. The sector is forecast by Grant Thornton to be worth $188 billion by 2025.
It's not clear how the objections from the finance ministry - a dozen in total - will ultimately be reflected in the proposed rule changes, first floated in June. But watchers of the influential government arm say its complaints won't fall on deaf ears in the upper echelons of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration.
"The ministry of finance raising such concerns would likely spur a rethink of the policy," said Suhaan Mukerji, managing partner at India's PLR Chambers, a law firm that specialises in public policy issues.
