Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday lashed out at Amazon’s predatory pricing and its trickle-down impact on small retailers after the e-commerce firm incurred a loss of Rs 6000 crore in India.
During the launch of the report on e-commerce and employment by Pahle India Foundation in New Delhi, Piyush Goyal said Amazon's Rs 6000 crore smelt like predatory pricing.
As per NDTV Profit, Goyal reportedly said that Amazon deploys loopholes to operate as consumer e-commerce despite not being legally allowed to do so. He stated that Amazon is an e-commerce platform and they are not allowed to do B2C.
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“They (Amazon) create entities where Indians contribute to making these entities, sadly. Then they get caught so they start closing those entities. They re-route all the business through an entity to show that it is B2B, but the reality is all of you buy on these platforms. How do you buy? B2C is not allowed, how are they doing it? Should this not be a matter of concern for all of us?"
Questioning the nature of Amazon's investment in India, Goyal reportedly stated that the investment of billions of dollars is not coming for any great service or investment to support the Indian economy.
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Now that they Amazon has incurred a billion dollar loss in their balance sheet, they have to fill it up, he said.
Goyal said that he could not understand how the loss of such volume was caused. He stated that Amazon pays Rs 1000 crore to top lawyers and Professionals to block them so that they cannot fight cases against them.
Goyal said that e-commerce can cause "Huge social disruption" to the retailers and shop owners in the country despite achieving a growth of 27 per cent annually citing the report.
With e-commerce edging and wedging into high margin products, 10 million retail stores in the countries will be severely affected, Goyal said, "We look at it as a source of pride. Lots of youngsters, including my children, order online. But we must remember that what we’re doing today is going to determine the future of India 10 years down the line," he said as per NDTV Profit.
